India can achieve 1.65 bn units of electricity next year:Goyal

The country can achieve as high as 50 per cent growth in electricity production up to 1.65 trillion units next year, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said today.
"We need to double our power production. Given the infrastructure and generating capacity we have today...We have the ability to double our power production. If tomorrow we need to add 50 per cent power to our system I am ready for that. We are making about 1.1 trillion units of electricity annually now ...We can go up to 1.65 next year," Power, Coal and Mines Minister Goyal said at INFOCOM 2016 here.
The minister termed power shortages cited by the states as "technical" arising out of mismanagement.

"Very often states don't buy and show shortage...There is a mismatch between availability of power and capacity of states to purchase and distribute to last mile connectivity.," he said.
The minister said there was surplus production of coal now unlike in the past when two-third of India's power plants were left with only critical coal stocks.
"We have brought in enough coal into the system. Today in the entire country not one power plant has critical coal stock against 2/3rd of the when I became the Minister... As a nation for 55 days if not a single kilo of coal is produced you will have power," he said.

The minister said Rs 1.11 lakh crore would be pumped in for technological upgradation of power infrastructure through various schemes for rural and urban India.

He added that the government was trying to ensure 24x7 power supply to each household by 2019, three years ahead of the target. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced providing power to the last household by 2022.
Goyal said renewable energy has received unprecedented thrust in India and he has handpicked a joint secretary level official from Prime Minister's office to focus on solar rooftop for which a target to reach 40,000 MW by 2022 has been fixed from a mere 200 MW when he assumed charge fo the Ministry.

About the entire solar energy, he said the government wants to take it to 100,000 MW from a mere 2,400 MW when he assumed office.
He said technology was used in augmenting solar power capacity in the country.