India may yet again miss power capacity addition target for a Plan period as the country is likely to add around only 50,000 Mw of generation capacity against the targetted 72,000 Mw in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12).
In his address at the India Finance Forum, a two-day event organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), C Rangarajan, chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister said that we have initially planned to add 72,000 Mw during the five year, then it was revised to 62,000 Mw and no we were told that only 50,000 Mw likely to be added. This is not good for the country. What we add here in five years, China adds in one year.
The sector needs focus and the problems which the sectors focus include environment, land acquisition and governance.
The other challenges, which according to industry sources is not in the main plant equipment (boilers, turbines and generators), but in the balance of plant equipment, i.e. for coal-handling, ash-handling plants.
Supply of equipments for this section takes time.
At the beginning of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan Period (2007-12), the government had set a target for adding 78,577 Mw of power. During the Eleventh Plan, the government, so far, has been able to add only over 23,000 Mw of electricity. This makes it an uphill task to attain an addition target of 78,577
Mw, or even 62,000 Mw capacity in the terminal year of the current plan period.
Meanwhile, the Power Ministry has set a target of 100,000 Mw of power capacity addition in the upcoming Twelfth Plan (2012-17).