Hunnarbaaz series: Skills and jobs in power sector

This article is based on Hunnarbaaz TV series that was aired on Doordarshan. We wish to acknowledge and credit Directorate General of Training, MSDE and Cinema Vision India for Hunnarbaaz series. We are thankful to National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) for permission to re-use the video content in this educational series. Please note that the names of organisations and designations of people shown in the videos and quoted in the article may no longer be the same. This article has 4 pages.

About the power industry and PSSC

There are three major areas in the power sector where employment is generated for skilled workforce. These are: power generation, power transmission and power distribution. The Power Sector Skill Council (PSSC) works with training partners, academic institutions and assessment agencies to create job roles and certification criteria as per NSQF. 

Introduction to the power sector

In the year 1969, two decades after the Independence of India, with the growing Industrialisation, the need to make India skilled/talented and most of all make India a developing nation was high. The ministry of Labour and Employment of the Government was the answer to the above. Through Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) it is training nearly 16.5 lakh students across 11900 institutes in 133 trade courses. It has achieved 105% success with the hope that India will move towards a future where everyone will progress and benefit.

Without power there is no sector that can function. Hence it is easily the most important sector in the Infrastructure of India’s development. We are 6^th in the world in power generation. In our country 65% of the power comes from thermal power plants, 22% from Hydro power plants, and 3% from nuclear power plants and 10% from other sources like wind, Solar and bio gas. The components of power sector are generation, transmission, distributions, wiring etc.

There is a huge deficit of power as the requirement is high so power plants are being set up. The economy is growing and in every sector like farming, transport, waste collection, IT, communication and other areas there is a great need for power so the demand is high.

Many power plants have been set up that are primarily coal or water based, windmill, solar or bio gas. The current capacity is 250000 MW and it is estimated that we have to take it to 400,000 megawatts by 2030. Earlier only one company used to the do the entire process of power generation to distribution but now it’s done in the following 3 parts, viz, Power generation, transmission and distribution Tata power Reliance energy Limited, CESC Limited, BHEL, NHPC are some companies helping to generate and transmit power. There is a lack of technicians in the industry. There is a need for technicians like turner, fitter, wireman, electrician, machine operators etc.