Diesel Generator sets

This article in the Indian Express states that the total installed capacity of Diesel Generator (DG) units for power backup in the country now add up to about 90 000 MW. That is 36 % of total installed capacity in the country or about half of installed capacity in large power stations in the country.

It gets worse. The installed DG capacity is growing at somewhere between 5000 MW to 8000 MW every year. For context, the largest Hydro-electric power project in the country generates 1920 MW. The DG capacity added every year is more than the cumulative nuclear and solar capacity added in the country each year. The total global market for installation of DG sets is expected to be US$ 68 Billion by 2020.

Let us think about that for a minute. Electricity is the most portable of energies. You can generate it anywhere in the country and use it anywhere else instantly if you have a grid in place. The problem with most developing nations is that demand exceeds supply and in under-developed nations, that there is no grid, because the political rulers have used the money to buy property in London. Or in the case of Lebanon, the mafia has found out that sale of power from localized DG sets is so lucrative that they actively protect their turf and prevent the government agencies from installing step-down transformers to distribute the power generated in large power stations.

Some people are starting to say that power generation in India is not really lagging that far behind demand. I wonder how much of the Lebanon problem is at play here in India.