The Hindu Business Line : Centre hopeful of meeting power capacity addition target

THE Centre is confident of adding slightly more than 40,000 MW during the Tenth Plan, which will be close to the target of 41,000 MW for the Plan period.

This is something of a record for the country's capacity addition programme, according to the Union Power Secretary, Mr R.V. Shahi. This was against a total of 35,000 MW added during the previous two plan periods.

Apart from accelerating the capacity addition programme, the Centre's reform initiatives in the power sector were also bearing fruit, Mr Shahi said.

For instance, under the Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme, a survey conducted by the Power Finance Corporation of 16 State power utilities showed that they had registered a loss reduction of Rs 7,500 crore in the two years the programme had been in operation.

The average plant load factor of the power stations had also increased to about 73 per cent now against 56 per cent about 10-12 years ago.

He was confident that by the end of this financial year, the average PLF would be close to 75 per cent. Electricity generation in the first half of this financial year had recorded a growth of 7.8 per cent as compared to 3-4 per cent in the last four or five years, he said.

This growth in electricity generation had given a boost to the manufacturing sector in the country, Mr Shahi said inaugurating Energy Summit 2004, a two-day meet on energy conservation and renewable energy technology, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.