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India currently ranks as the world’s seventh largest energy producer, accounting for about 2.49% of the world’s total annual energy production. It is also the world’s fifth largest energy consumer, accounting for about 3.45% of the world’s total annual energy consumption in 2004. India currently ranks as the world’s seventh largest energy producer, accounting for about 2.49% of the world’s total annual energy production. It is also the world’s fifth largest energy consumer, accounting for about 3.45% of the world’s total annual energy consumption
in 2004. The persistent shortages of electricity both for peak power and energy indicate the magnitude of the problem. Average peak shortages are estimated to be 12% in 2006–07 which is an underestimate as scheduled load shedding is not included in it. The very high load factor of 76.8% for the system indicates that the system is operating under strain or has limited
reserve. At the same time, for want of natural gas, some gas-based power plants are kept idle. Nuclear plants are also operated at lower load factors for want of adequate uranium. Power shortages are an indication of insufficient generating capacity and inadequate transmission and distribution (T&D) networks. |
The all-India installed generating capacity of utilities at the beginning of the Tenth Plan was
104917 MW. This included 26261 MW of hydro, 74428 MW of thermal, 2720.00 MW of nuclear power, and 1507.50 MW of wind energy. |
The capacity addition target for the Tenth Plan was 41109 MW. Against this, a capacity addition of 21080 MW was actually achieved during the Plan period. |
It may be noted that the above capacity includes 1210 MW thermal-based capacity (Central: 500 MW, State: 538 MW, and private: 172 MW) which was not included in the original Plan target. Despite these additional projects, the Tenth Plan performance has been disappointing.
The cumulative capacity at the end of the Tenth Plan was 132329 MW, including 7760 MW renewable sources of energy. The gross electricity requirement by the end of the Eleventh Plan projected by the Working Group on power is 1038 Billion Unit (BU) and peak demand
estimation is 151000 MW whereas the EC on Integrated Energy Policy has projected the gross electricity requirement of 1097 BU and peak demand of 158000 MW. To fulfill the estimated electricity demand requirement, the Working Group recommended the capacity addition programme initially of 78530 MW and updated at 78577 MW during the Eleventh Plan. |
RAJIV GANDHI GRAMEEN VIDYUTIKARAN YOJANA (RGGVY) :
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The GoI launched RGGVY in April 2005 to provide electricity access to all rural households and extend free connections to all BPL households (estimated at 2.3 crore) by 2009. RGGVY subsidizes the capital cost by 90% through GoI grants. The approved capital cost estimate for RGGVY is Rs 16000 crore with a subsidy component of Rs 14750 crore. The physical targets included electrification of 125000 un-electrified villages by creating rural electricity distribution backbone and village electrification infrastructure and last mile service connectivity to 10% households in the village at a rate of Rs 6.50 lakh per village. The target to give free connections to 2.34 crore BPL households was also included in the above estimates. The Rural Electrification component under the Bharat Nirman Programme envisages electrification
of all 125000 un-electrified villages and 2.3 crore households (out of total 7.8 crore un-electrified households in the country) by 2009. Thus the Rural Electrification component under Bharat Nirman Programme is the sub-set of RGGVY. The time frame for these two programmes coincides. |
Power capacity addition just 30% of the target : |
| Capacity-addition target of around 11,000 MW for 2008-09 was missed by miles, with only 3,454 MW coming through till end-March. The sluggishness was attributed to site clearance issues, delay from equipment manufacturers, problems on the supply of balance-of-plant equipment and fuel linkages not coming through. |
The progress during the current fiscal also is slack, with just over 30 per cent of the target of 14,507 MW having been achieved in the first six months of the current fiscal |
The current Plan period’s power capacity addition target of 78,700 Mw is likely to be missed again. The capacity addition will be just around 40,000 Mw, which will have a drastic impact. The GDP energy elasticity index, a measure of energy intensity of an economy, is 1.2 for India. This means that with 1 per cent growth in GDP, the energy demand goes up by 1.2 per cent. The Integrated Energy Policy (IEP) had in 2006 noted this elasticity at 0.8, while planning for a 7-8 per cent GDP growth, but it has already crossed this projection. The IEP has prescribed that in order to achieve a sustained 9 per cent GDP growth rate, India’s primary energy supply will have to increase by 4-5 times the 2003-04 level. It has further recommended the power generation capacity increase six-fold from the current level of around 160,000 Mw to 960,000 Mw by 2031-32. At an average realisation of Rs 2.27 per unit, electricity fetches revenue of around Rs 180,000 crore. |
The National Electricity Policy 2005 had stated that India’s power generation requirement would grow to over 1,038 billion units by 2012, and meeting this demand would require power generation to grow at a rate of 9 per cent per annum. BS 280909 |
3 PSUs to invest Rs 1,200 cr to set up solar plants :
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Three public sector companies are planning to set up 60-80 megawatt solar plants with an investment of Rs 1,000-1,200 crore. The projects will come up in Rajasthan, Punjab and the Leh region of Jammu and Kashmir. Capacity of these plants would vary from 15-20 megawatt each, Seshadri said, adding it would cost Rs 16 crore per megawatt. BS 071009
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10 ultra supercritical power projects planned : |
The Government is working on ushering in 10 ‘ultra supercritical’ power projects of 800 MW capacity each. These could be ready for tendering next month, after the current proposal for putting up 11 supercritical projects, of 800 MW each, is finalized.
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Power: Slow capacity addition falling far short of demand : |
Projects of over 45,000 Mw currently under construction are running behind schedule. The latest data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) says that projects behind schedule include around 35,000 Mw of thermal power projects and rest 10,000 Mw of hydropower projects, a major chunk of which is scheduled to be commissioned during the current Plan period ending March 2012. The quantum of the power capacity lagging behind schedule is around 65 per cent of the total 66,000 of generation capacity under execution in the country. |
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. The government has failed to meet the targets for the 9th and 10th plans. It even failed to meet the target for the first two years of the current Plan period, adding only 9,263 Mw in 2007-08 compared with the target of 17,000 Mw and 4,900 Mw in 2008-09 against a target of 11,061 Mw of capacity addition. |
| In order to meet this shortfall, the government has set up a target of adding around 5,600 Mw of fresh power generation capacity by the end of this year, out of which over 2,000 Mw has already been commissioned so far. 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 |
