“I shall make electricity so cheap that only the rich can afford to burn candles,” said Thomas Alva Edison. The legendary scientist was perhaps right to predict that his discovery would lighten up everyone’s home. But what he did not know was that decades after his death, candles are still the norm in many parts of India. Not because there are not enough electricity generation plants, but because of the shortage of fuel to run these ambitious projects. And now the government wants to hike tariffs to help break even.

On the outskirts of Delhi, a brand new 1,500 Mega Watt power plant is lying unused in the Bawana industrial area. The reason being that the Delhi government-owned Pragati Power Corporation is yet to arrange for the gas required to run the power plant, which cost over Rs 4,500 crore to construct.

“It is a systemic failure of governance on all fronts,” says Sanjay Kaul, social activist and a member of the Bharatiya Janata party. “It is not in the interest of people to hike power tariffs.”

“Getting a power plant up and running in India is a big task. For over 30 years the Delhi government has not done anything to regularise and sustain its power supply. They think that with all the VVIPs living in Delhi, they would be able to buy power from other states. Besides the VVIPs who live in the NDMC areas barely pay a quarter of the price that ordinary residents in Delhi pay for power, considering the state’s special status,” says Kaul.

The social activist added that planning was amiss as “one constructs a power plant to last at least 30 years and not five years. They should have thought of coal and gas shortages while planning the project. This is lackadaisical planning,” he said, adding that “the UPA government should have thought of all these things earlier”.

Domestic consumers in Delhi are likely to be charges Rs 3.70 instead of Rs 3 for the first 200 units of power. Rs 4.80 will be levied up to 400 units, calculated from zero. Usage above 400 units will be charged at Rs 6.40.

To top it all, new power plants are either not working or are generating electricity below their capacity. Such is the irony that states like Haryana and Punjab are struggling to meet peak power demands in their respective states while projects such as the ambitious 1,500 MW Indira Gandhi Super Thermal Power Project of the former, is generating power way below its capacity.

Same is the case with National Thermal Power Corporation’s Kayamkulam project in Kerala as well as Lanco’s 1200MW Anpara C and corporate powerhouse Reliance’s 1200MW Rosa project (Both in Uttar Pradesh). NTPC is barely able to generate 26,000 MW of power compared to its installed capacity of 32,000 MW.

But fuel is not the only issue here. Cash crunch, a widening demand-supply gap, a failing reforms agenda have all contributed to this pathetic state of affairs. Several states have tried to hike tariff to make up for the shortage of cash and to be able to buy power. But states such as Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh simply prefer to shed load as hiking prices and buying power from external sources will only add to the loss.

Many industrial units have to resort to using captive power plants to help them keep running their business. Business in states with extreme shortage of power supply such as Punjab and Tamil Nadu are turning to the market to buy power to sustain their needs.

The biggest tragedy of all is that 2012 was designated as the “power for all” year. This target remains to be achieved and if it is achieved, will be an expensive affair.