'Mega plants no answer to power crisis'

Mega power plants, including those run on nuclear energy, will not be of much help in ensuring energy efficiency and conservation, said Bob Lieberman, Principal at the Regulatory Assistance Project, USA, on Monday.

Delivering a talk on ‘A brief overview of US electricity markets and regulation in USA’ here, Bob said countries should avoid building power plants. Instead emphasis should be laid on renewable energy resources, he added.

Even in the US, there was a strong belief that nuclear power would be too cheap to (electric) meters. However, it didn’t take too long for the US to realise it was not true, he said. 

When questioned about recent awarding of licences by the US government to build two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia, first such approval in the US since 1978, Bob said he has to see how it works out, as the approval has come after several decades. Bob said, many countries today, have renewable energy portfolio and it’s high time India also focusses on the same. 

He said energy efficiency should also be achieved through proper designing of buildings and other structures, better customer relations, adopting smart grid to avoid transmission losses, etc. 

Detailing the methods to conserve energy in India, Bob said wind energy should be given more prominence and more incentives should be given for generating such alternative energy.