Power Generation

Apart from measures to improve generation it would make sense to also whole-heartedly adopt the adage that energy saved is energy generated.

- R Srinivasan

A power department statement said that the electricity generation target for 2016-17 was fixed as 1,178 BU, a growth of around 6.38 per cent over actual generation of 201516. As per Central Electricity Authority (CEA), electricity generation from thermal, hydro, nuclear and import from Bhutan grew by 4.7 per cent to 1,159.83 billion units (BU) in 2016-17 as compared to 1,107.82 BU generated in the previous year. A majority of our power plants depend on coal since India has one of the largest coal reserves in the world. So it plays a vital role in ramping up generation. As per Planning Commission estimates, the country’s energy supply needs to grow at 6.5 per cent annually if the nation has to achieve annual economic growth of nine per cent during the current plan period from 2012-17. Add to this the fact that of the 1.4 billion people in the world with no access to electricity, India accounts for around 300 million people in rural India who have no access to electricity.

As per a recent report ‘Boom and Bust’, released by Sierra Club, Greenpeace and Coalswarm, from January 2016 to January 2017, development of coal-fired power capacity fell around the world. In China and India alone, construction activities that would add 68 GW - over a fifth of India’s total installed capacity - of additional coal capacity were frozen across 100 project sites, 13 of them in India. The Ministry of Power said that in India, as of February 2017, at least 15 coal-based thermal power projects with an aggregate capacity of 18,420 MW were stalled due to financial reasons. To revive some struggling power projects with a cumulative capacity of some 30 GW under a new mega power policy in March 2017 the Cabinet provided support of about Rs 10,000 crore to the sector, in addition to incentives to relieve the burden of stressed assets on banks, estimated at Rs 1.5 lakh crore.