Power scorecard: 50% achievement in Q1

The power sector's addition to its capacity in the first quarter of the year has been a little under half of the target, according to the latest data collated by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

The performance is set to deteriorate this month, with just 540 Mw set to be added against a target of 2,820 Mw, which would mean an achievement of just 35 per cent of the target for the April-July period.

Industry insiders are already doubting the ability of the country to add the targeted 17,000 Mw during the year. "Realistically speaking, the addition is unlikely to be more than 10,000 Mw," said a power ministry official.

Looking at the data month-wise, the achievement was 31 per cent in April, 36 per cent in April and 131 per cent in June "" the only month in which the target was exceeded. The projection for July is just 19 per cent. 
 

POWER CUT
Months 2007	Capacity addition		Electricity generation
	Targeted	Achieved	Planned	Achieved
	(in Mw)		(in mln units)
April	720	220 (31)	54,767	58,008 (106)
May	2,090	750 (36)	58,484	60,771 (104)
June	465	610 (131)	57,798	57,063 (99)
July	2,820	540 (19)*	na	na
Total	6,095	2,120 (35)	na	na
*Projected                                                       (Figures in brackets in %)

"Our report card is not very good," admitted a CEA official. The projects were stalled for a variety of reasons like delay in forest clearance, geological surprises that might come up while the work was on or unavailability of civil work equipment and machinery, the official added.

The power ministry's commissioning time-table also seems to be at a wide variance with reality. For instance, Torrent Power's Sugen power plant's first unit of 1,000 Mw, which, according to ministry data, was to be commissioned by July 2007, will actually be commissioned by December.

Industry officials are also sceptical about the possibility of meeting the targeted capacity addition of 78,000 Mw for the Eleventh Five-Year Plan. Most expect the actual addition to be between 75 per cent and 80 per cent of the target. In the Tenth Plan (2002-2007), just half the targeted capacity of 41,000 Mw was added

Despite the tardy pace of capacity addition, however, electricity production is on the rise. The number of units generated in the first three months of the year were marginally higher than the target of 171 billion units. Actual production was almost 176 billion units, or 103 per cent of the target.

Experts said this was attributable to higher capacity utilisation and lower demand. The plant load factor for April-June has touched 82 per cent while the targeted plant load factor was 79 per cent.