And 4.24 per cent of the total generation of electricity in India. Maharashtra leads with 12.22% of the installed capacity and I 1.91 per cent of total electricity generation of the country.
Eight other states in descending order of their electricity generation like Gujarat, Andhara Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. Punjab, West Bengal, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh along with Maharashtra together contributes 53% of the total installed capacity and 50% of generation of electricity in the country. Among the remaining states each provides less than 3 per cent of the installed capacity/electricity generation of the country.
Two industrialised states like Maharashtra and Gujarat provide one-fifth of the total installed capacity and electricity generation of the country. The Western power grid (Maharashtra. Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Daman and Diu) contribute 22% of the installed capacity and generation of electricity. Four southern states constituting southern power grid provide another 18 per cent of the country’s install led capacity and generation of electricity.
The northern power grid covering a vast area of U.P., Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi with 16% installed capacity and 15% generation faces acute shortage of power. The position of eastern power grid consisting of Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa with 8.7% installed capacity and 6% generation is still grimmer.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
It is a curious paradox that this region with vast coal reserve and housing super thermal power plants is not able to find permanent solution to its power crisis. The north-eastern power grid comprising of Assam and adjoining states hardly contributes 1.5 per cent of the installed capacity and I per cent of generation of electricity to the national output. This region is also deficient in power which is precluding its economic development. Presently hydro-power is important in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala and Meghalaya while thermal power plays vital role in Delhi, Assam, West Bengal and Bihar. In other states like Andhra Pradesh, Haryana,
Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh both hydro and thermal power are important. Nuclear power, although under central sector, has been developed in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. There is a need to generate electrical energy from biogas. Wind and solar radiation and put emphasis on the development of mini hydel and gas based power plants to remove power crisis in rural areas and accelerate rural economic development.