11th plan to miss power capacity addition targets
(Vinod Kumar Gupta)

Publication Date 3/8/2009

Government of India has intensified its efforts to materialize the ambitious of 11th five year plan capacity addition target of 78,700 MW but the capacity addition seems to miserably failed to meet the respective targets.

Against a power generation capacity target of over 78,700 MW during the current Five-Year Plan, projects of over 45,000 MW currently under construction are running behind schedule.

As per Central Electricity Authority (CEA) report that projects behind schedule include around 35,000 MW of thermal power projects and balance 10,000 MW of hydropower projects.

The government has failed to meet the targets for the first two years of the current Plan period, adding only 9,263 MW in 2007-08 against the target of 17,000 MW and 4,900 MW in 2008-09 against a target of 11,061 MW of capacity addition.

Several factors including delay in placing order for main plant and balance of plant equipment for thermal projects, delays in preparation of project reports and in getting environmental clearances for hydro projects have resulted in these projects running behind schedule.

Bharat Sinh Solanlki Minister of State for Power said other day in the Rajya Sabha that there were difficulties in meeting targets of thermal power generation because of shortage of equipment and manpower and pointed out that the country faces a shortage of 15,000 MW. He said in order to achieve additional target of 78,700 MW set for the 11th Five Year Plan, BHEL has enhanced its capacity to deliver main plant equipment

Solanki further said though there is no proposal for import of machinery by the government to meet the capacity addition requirements, some state and private utilities have placed orders to foreign manufacturers for supply of power plant equipment.

It may be mentioned that the Integrated Energy Policy (IEP) has recommended that the country’s power generation capacity need to be raised six-fold, from the current level of around 1,50,000 MW to 9,60,000 Mw by 2030 in order to sustain a 9 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

CEA has already projected a peak power deficit of well over 12 per cent for the current financial year as compared to less than 11 per cent peak deficit last year.

Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said in the Lok Sabha that the high target fixed for power generation in the country was never met. He said the anticipated gap between demand and supply of electrical energy in the country during 2009-10, as per Central Electricity Authority assessment, was likely to decrease to 9.3 per cent (78,249 MU) from actual gap of 11.1 per cent (86,001 MU) in 2008-09.

In terms of peaking power, it was likely to increase to 12.6 per cent (14,978 MW) during the current year from 11.9 per cent (13,024 MW) actually witnessed last year.