With the vision to make the
Navratna PowerGrid Corporation
of India Limited (PGCIL) a
globally competitive company, its
Director(Personnel), VM Kaul, and his team
are trying to create a benchmark in the
overall power industry in terms of operational
and project management capabilities.
Kaul, who was also recently conferred with
the "HR Leadership Award" by the Asia Pacific
HRM Congress, speaks to Bureaucracy
Today about the strategies,
expansion and challenges ahead at the
PGCIL.
Kaul, a Mechanical Engineer from the IIT, Delhi, joined the PowerGrid in 2002. Talking about the recent HR leadership award conferred to him and the strategy adopted by him in the area of Human Resource development at the PowerGrid, the Director (Personnel) says, "PowerGrid is a growing organization and there are major challenges in terms of increasing transmission lines to meet the power generation targets of the country which have been escalating. Thus we have taken several steps to motivate our employees like the introduction of a performance pay scale in which a certain percentage of the salary is given as variable depending upon the performance of the employee. We have been giving managerial training to our employees by experts in the industry. Apart from having stretch targets and challenging assignments we even conduct cultural and social events which bind the whole Power- Grid family as we have a task of building infrastructure for the nation. We have been achieving all the targets and that's the reason we have been receiving awards and MoUs every year".
Kaul further says, "Apart from growing as group our performance is also improving. For example, the operational performance is measured by the availability of our transmission lines. Last year we had an availability of 99.8 % which is among the best in the world. Similarly, on the project management side, we have been training our people so that all our projects are completed on time".
INVESTMENT IN 12TH PLAN PERIOD
The PowerGrid recently announced an investment of Rs.100, 000 crore in the 12th Plan period( 2012-2017). This is nearly twice the targeted capital expenditure during the 11th Plan (2007-2012) which was Rs 55,000 crore. Speaking of the investment by the company, Kaul cites, "Our Rs 80,000 crores projects are in execution. Besides this, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has approved our nine High Capacity Power Transmission Corridors (HCPTCs) in the country and their implementation would facilitate the evacuation/ transmission of power from various Independent Power Producers (IPPs) generation projects proposed in the States of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. The Rs 1 lakh-crore investment depends on the execution of power generation projects. If there is a delay we may slow down the investment or else we may exceed the limit by Rs 10 to 15 thousand crore".
CHALLENGES AHEAD
Talking about the challenges ahead for the PowerGrid, VM Kaul opines, "Acquisition of land for our substations seems to be a major challenge for us due to the ongoing controversy over land acquisition. Secondly right-of-way, our high voltage transmission lines have to pass through forest and residential areas and people don't like to have such higher voltage lines nearby their houses. Thus through advanced technology we are working to build a 1,200KV transmission line (1 transmission line has 6000 MW power). This is a pioneer technology in the world. The PowerGrid aims to develop the same in the next two to three years". The Director (Personnel) says, "We are hoping for a 25 percent increase in our profit margin for the year 2011-12".
