Plan power to fall 10% short

The power ministry has estimated that capacity addition in the Tenth Plan will be 37,000 Mw against the targeted 41,110 Mw.

The shortfall of 10 per cent will, however, be made up by absorbing an additional 5000 Mw in the national grid from captive capacity, the ministry has said in its annual performance report for 2004-05.

In the next Plan period, capacity addition of 60,896 Mw will be required in order to meet peak demand and energy requirements in the country, it has estimated.

Of the total, thermal power will need to generate 33,536 Mw and hydro power will have to contribute 22,420 Mw. Nuclear power accounts for 4,940 Mw in the period between 2007-12. The central electricity authority (CEA) has already identified thermal projects of 71285 Mw and hydro projects of 2902.5 Mw, to be completed during the next Plan.

Each state has been asked to firm up the Eleventh Plan capacity addition programme and send a report to the power ministry within two months.

Simultaneously, letters of award and commissioning schedules are to be firmed up for public and private sector projects, which are to be developed during the next Plan period.

States have been asked to ensure that there is no bunching of projects towards the end of the Plan, as has happened during the Tenth Plan. "This leads to problems in sourcing fuel for the plants," said a power ministry official.

Simultaneously, the ministry is also holding regular review meetings with equipment manufacturers to ensure that equipment shortage does not slow down the capacity-addition programme.

Bhel, a major equipment supplier, has planned a capacity-augmentation programme for the next Plan period. It aims to increase its annual manufacturing capacity from 6,000 Mw to 10,000 Mw by end 2007.

The total installed generating capacity in the sector is around 1,18,419 Mw. Thermal power accounts for 69 per cent of this.