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Electricity is a clean source of energy. It is generated from water, coal, mineral oil, natural gas, and atomic minerals. Electricity can also be generated through wind energy, solar energy, biogas, sea-waves, geothermal and dry batteries. Electricity is relatively cheap, transportable, pollution free and renewable. Because of these advantages it is increasingly becoming popular day by day. The per head consumption of electricity is often considered an important indicator of socio- economic and human development. It is about 350 kWh which is much below the per head consumption in the world 1000 kWh and USA 7000 kWh
Year | Hydro | Thermal | Nuclear | Others | Grand Total |
1950-51 | 0.6 | 1.1 | — | 0.6 | 2.3 |
1960-61 | 1.9 | 2.7 | — | 1.0 | 5.6 |
1970-71 | 6.4 | 8.0 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 16.3 |
1980-81 | 11.8 | 17.6 | 0.9 | 3.1 | 33.3 |
1990-91 | 18.8 | 45.8 | 1.5 | 8.6 | 74.7 |
2000-01 | 25.0 | 76.0 | 2.9 | 15.2 | 119.1 |
2005-06 | 35.0 | 95.0 | 2.8 | 17.2 |
Source: The Economic Survey, 2006-07.
It may be seen from Table 8.7 that the total installed capacity of electricity by different sources was only 2.3 thousand MW in 1950-51 which rose to 150 thousand MW in 2005-06. The highest installed capacity is that of thermal, accounting for over 63 per cent of the total installed capacity.
The electricity production in India was started in 1898 when the Darjeeling hydel power project was commissioned. The first thermal power plant was installed in Kolkata in 1899. Subsequently, the Mettur project in Tamil Nadu and the Sivasamudram project in Karnataka were commissioned. In the initial phase the use of electricity was confined only to the big urban centres. The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) was established in 1975, which established a number of thermal power stations based mainly on coal in different parts of the country.
2005 | 2006 | Change over previous year | |
Power Generation* | 487.4 | 617.5 | 7.5 |
Hydro-electric | 84.50 | 80.61 | 13.8 |
Thermal | 486.1 | 497.20 | 6.1 |
Nuclear | 16.8 | 17.21 | 3.0 | |
* Excludes generation from captive and non-conventional power plants and thermal power plants below 20 MW units and hydro-power plants below 2 MW. Source: Economic Survey, 2007, p.179.
It may be seen from Table 8.8 that in 2005, the power generation was 487.4 billion kWh in which the share of hydro-power and thermal power was 84.50 billion kWh and 486.1 billion kWh respectively. In 2006, an increase of 6.1 and 13.8 per cent was recorded in the production ofhydro-and thermal power respectively.