PANAJI
The State is battling with power issues and industries are in constant demand of uninterrupted electricity to run their operations smoothly and without any hassles. But there is a silver ray to the woes of cloud for the industrial units operating in Kundaim Industrial Estate (KIE), as post monsoon, for the past two months the power supply has been regularised to a great extent.Kundaim where around 200 industrial units are based and out of which around 150 are working, there is improvement in the power supply and there are fewer fluctuations now, says industrialist Kiran Shirsat, president, Kundaim Industrial Estate Association and managing director of Prachi Aqua Minerals Pvt Ltd.
Elaborating further Shirsat pointed out that after the new power minister took to his chair, he studied the reasons why enough power was not reaching Kundaim industrial estate. “We had demanded that the power supply should be diverted from Amona substation so that our units get sufficient power supply. Probably the Ponda underground cabling issue was rectified and our issue of power shortage has been resolved to some extent,” agreed Shirsat.
However, the KIE president expressed concern over the recent announcement by the Goa government of price hike in the power tariff, which has made the industrial sector anxious. “There was a 20% rise in power rates in April 2022. We cannot cope with another price hike and the plastic industry costing will suffer if it is actually done,” Shirsat points out.
It is to be noted that Goa State Industrial Association (GSIA) has already made a representation to the government. Further submission will be made in the next JERC quarterly meeting, depending upon the rates of generation of power. The rates fluctuate every three months, and mostly it would go upward this time, feels Shirsat.
Power outage is a serious issue faced by almost all the processing units in the State. The units work for 24 hours and the process is continuous. If it stops due to power outage or load shading, the machine stops and has to be restarted. Explaining the process, Amey Kamat, director, Smart PET LLP at Kundai cited an example of how power fluctuations affect the plastic industry. “In injection moulding industry every time power goes, it takes 10-15 minutes for us to restart our machines. Additionally, there is cost of scrap generated due to power failures, as the raw material that is being processed, becomes waste once the machine stops. It is a loss which we have to bear,” states Kamat.
What if load shading is implemented in the State? This seems like a Herculean task, as unlike other States where after the period of load shading, there is continuous and uninterrupted power supply for days, until the next load shading day, but Goa does not boast of such uninterrupted power supply. Here there has to be 2-3 outages daily. So load shading remedy cannot work in Goa.
Kamat points out that Goa being a small State, should strive to have the best of electricity facilities which will attract new manufacturing industries, but the current state of infrastructure is a problem. “We saw this issue during last summer season when the government and GSIA worked together to procure power at additional prices to avoid load shedding due to shortage of power. Even after paying additional Rs 1.2 for power, we faced very poor power reliability as the infrastructure was unable to support the additional power load of the State,” recalled Kamat.
"Overall we would want Goa to be a state which is a reliable source of affordable power supply to thrive manufacturing industry which needs significant improvement right now," concludes Kamat.
INFRASTRUCTURE ISSUES
Unplanned power cuts: Electricity infrastructure needs to be improved. Everyday industry is facing minimum of 2-3 unplanned power-cuts which affect production and causes cost of wastage, especially for continuous process industries.
Voltage fluctuations: There are continuous voltage fluctuations which also stop production. Due to spikes in power, also many a time electrical parts of machines fail which is an unnecessary expense.
- POWER AT WHAT COST!
>> The government is proposing a hike in the power tariff rates, however, the industry claims that just in the past year since April 2022, the government has increased prices by Rs 0.3 per unit and imposed electricity duty of Rs 0.08 per unit towards street lighting.
>> In addition to that there has been an outrageous hike in the FCCPA charges charged by JERC which fluctuate every quarter. Last quarter of OND 2022, FCCPA charges have been highest since last two years. Such a huge fluctuation in costs makes it very difficult for manufacturers to plan their product costs.
>> JFM 22 FCCPA charges were 0.39 per unit while OND 22 has been 1.69 per unit which is almost four times greater. Government should seek to reasonably control the current prices V/S further increase which will make Goa attractive to manufacturing industries V/S states like Silvassa which has become a manufacturing hub due to its cheap power costs.
