"I am happy to associate myself with these awards for excellence in performance in the Power Sector and I do so with the conviction that our country cannot be satisfied but with the best possible performance in all walks of national life. And I therefore hope that these awards will act as a signal, as an inspiration for all other functionaries to set their sights higher. As Sushilkumar Shinde ji has mentioned that the performance in the last five years with regard to the power sector has, I think, created some doubts about our capacity to meet our plan targets. This is not an occasion on which I wish to enter into the post mortem but we cannot be satisfied with the status quo. The fact that less than half of the capacity that we have planned being infact is created during the 10th Five Year Plan is a matter of deep concern to us in the Government as well as is a concern to the country at large.

When a premier State like Maharashtra, day after day, month after month, faces the trauma of power shortages even during those days when children have to prepare for school, I think that's a measure of gap in our performance. Therefore I sincerely hope all those who are involved in planning and in the execution of power sector will I think do some introspection as to what is that what has gone wrong, as how best together we can make up for the loss. It goes without saying that the performance of the power sector is extremely crucial for the overall performance of our economy. In old days whenever I went to the then Soviet Union there used to be a board everywhere : Communism is sine qua non for electricity. We don't need Soviet Union but certainly if we have to make progress, social or economic, electricity and power is a prime requisite. That's the measure of challenge in all States in tackling the problem of sustained and equitable development. I therefore sincerely hope that today's function will encourage and stimulate others to help in improving the efficiency of our power utilities and make energy available at a reasonable price to all our citizens.

Power is a basic infrastructure for economic development. Our Government has accorded high priority for the development of the power sector. The installed capacity in the country today is close to 1,30,000 MW. However, with the acceleration of economic growth, the demand for power has outstripped its supply. It is indeed regrettable that across the country power shortages in varying degrees still remains a constant constraint on our development and livelihoods. The total addition of generation capacity in the 10th Plan was just above 50% of what was targeted. We need to do much better if we have to ensure that electricity does not become a constraint on our economy. The Power Sector must grow to meet the needs of industry and agriculture; the needs of urban areas and rural areas; the needs of our households, our farms and factories.

While there is immense scope for improving the efficiency and productivity of our power sector enterprises, I do recognise that there are several good performers in the sector. I would like to congratulate the awardees present here and compliment them for their wholehearted involvement in improving the performance of our power utilities.

I am very happy to note that the performance of thermal power stations has played an important role in improving the overall power generation in our country. It is a matter of satisfaction that the Plant Load Factor of these stations has increased steadily over the last few years and has reached 76.2% in the year 2006-07 as compared to less than 70% five years ago. I compliment you all for this achievement.

I call upon all Central and State utilities to utilize generating capacity to the maximum possible extent through the adoption of best practices and regular maintenance of generating units. It is not only necessary to improve the working of machines but also of the men behind the machines. We have to make every effort to ensure that we invest adequately in enhancing human resource capabilities in this vital sector. You must invest therefore in the regular training and skill upgradation of all our power sector professionals.

Our Government is once again paying attention to hydro-electricity. I would like to see a similar improvement in the productivity of hydel power generation. Given the geographical concentration of hydel power generation, an efficient transmission system is necessary to transmit power from far off sources of generation to load centres. I am, therefore, happy to note that the North-Eastern, Eastern, Northern and Western Regional grids have already been synchronised to form an integrated grid of more than 90,000 MW capacity. In the 11th Five Year Plan, when the Southern Regional grid is also expected to be synchronised with the rest of the system, we should have the entire country's power system operating as one large interconnected grid.

I consider reforms in the distribution sector as vital for the commercial viability and sustainable development of the power sector. We have not paid in the past adequate attention to this fact. Reforms in power distribution and pricing therefore are a vital aspect of the quest for energy security. High transmission and distribution losses and constant theft of electricity are unacceptable propositions. These need to be tackled truly on a war-footing. I sincerely hope we can forge a broad national consensus on the challenges we face in this vital sector of our economy. I am glad that parameters such as AT&C losses, financial turnaround and metering of feeders have been considered while evaluating the performance of distribution companies for the purposes of the award that I have distributed just now. But we need to do much more if we have to attain financial sustainability.

Demand Side Management also has not received adequate attention in the past. We need to consciously plan and adopt energy efficient equipment, gadgets and lighting devices to save power. I notice that more than two-thirds of the awards have gone to Generating Companies and only a fifth to Transmission Companies and a tenth to Distribution Companies. In order to give equal emphasis and importance to all three sectors of power, this distribution pattern of awards may need to be re-examined.

I take this opportunity to heartily congratulate all the organisations, which have won the awards for their best performance. I hope our utilities would attain even higher levels of performance and others will emulate them in the coming years. The Ministry of Power and the Central Electricity Authority should motivate and encourage various utilities to compete with each other in securing this national recognition. It will also be useful for you to benchmark yourself against global best practices and compare your performance with that of the best run power utilities worldwide and see what distance you still have to travel to meet those challenges. Being the best in India is good, but not good enough. You must be among the very best in the world as a whole. This is the challenge before our economy. This is a challenge before our polity. This is a challenge before the people of India as a whole. I sincerely hope that working together we all can meet this challenge and I wish you all success in this noble national endeavour."