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Coal and gas supply constraints notwithstanding, the government today said it would be able to meet the target of adding 1,18,000 Mw capacity by March 2017.
The government, which was unable to achieve the previous plan period (2007-12) target of 78,577 Mw due to fuel scarcity issues, aims to add 118,000 Mw power generation capacity by March 2017. The target includes the spill-over of the previous Plan's shortfall, Planning Commission's current target of over 88,000 Mw and nuclear as well as renewable power capacities.
"We are targeting a capacity addition of approximately 1,18,000 Mw including 30,000 Mw from renewable energy sources in the current five year plan (2012-17)," Power Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha told reporters here.
About 18,200 Mw, including 2,000 Mw of solar power, is to be added during the current financial year, ending March 31.
"We are very confident of achieving this (financial) year's target," Sinha said.
On being asked whether fuel non-availability will be an impediment in achieving this target, Sinha said that the fuel pass-through mechanism will solve that problem.
"Coal is not a bottleneck as the government has allowed fuel pass-through, shortages in domestic coal are being met through imported coal," he said.
As per the fuel-pass through, the cost of imported coal is passed on to the consumer in the form of higher tariff.
As for the domestic supplies, state-run Coal India plans to increase its production to 615 million tonnes by 2016-17.
Sinha said: "Of the targetted 1,18,000 Mw the government has already achieved 30,000 Mw capacity till January, 2014." This does not include any renewable power capacity.
In 2012-13, India added over 20,000 Mw capacity.
The government was unable to achieve the revised target of 62,000 Mw in the 11th plan period (2007-12), mainly due to scarcity of coal and gas. The original target for the plan period was 78,577 Mw. The total capacity added during the period was close to 55,000 Mw.
India's installed generation capacity is 2,28,722 Mw.
