Power generation target to be met in 10th Plan

The power ministry has asserted that it will be able to achieve its capacity addition target of 40,702 mega watts (MW) for the current Plan.

The government had missed the power generation targets by a wide margin during the last two Plan periods.

More than 50 per cent of the capacity addition target for the current Plan is to be executed by Central power utilities, mainly the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC).

Of the 20,717 MW generation capacity earmarked for Central utilities during the Tenth Plan period, units totalling nearly 15,000 MW had been commissioned or were at present under various stages of execution, Power Secretary R V Shahi told Business Standard.

"The Central utilities have been entrusted with achieving a major portion of the capacity addition targets set for the current Plan period. We are confident that they will achieve over 95 per cent of their targets and the government will make resources available to them," Shahi said.

The power utilities in the states, which have a target of 13,974 MW during the Tenth Plan, have already commissioned units totalling 1,864.72 MW till November 2003. Another 5,993 MW is under execution by the various states electricity boards (SEBs).

"We are following up with states on their respective capacity addition targets and are closely monitoring the progress made by them," Shahi said.

Till November, a total of 5,032 MW had been added across all sectors.

Of this, 2,520 MW has been put up by Central utilities, 1,865 MW by the states and 648 MW by private power generators.