Power capacity addition scales new peak in 2010-11

Despite slippages, a record power capacity addition of 12,160 MW has been achieved in 2010-11. Hitherto, the record for generation capacity commissioned in a single year was in fiscal 2009-10, when 9,585 MW was added.

While the record was boosted again by a spirited performance by the private sector, the cumulative capacity addition commissioned during the year crossed the 12,000-MW mark on account of a last-ditch effort by state-owned NTPC Ltd.

Late Thursday evening, NTPC announced the commissioning of a 500-MW unit at its Simhadri project. The official communication, coming well past 8 p.m. on the last day of the 2010-11 financial year, effectively ensured that the cumulative power capacity addition for the year shot past the 11,660 MW that would otherwise have been the tally had NTPC's late evening announcement not come through on March 31.

Official target

Notwithstanding the new landmark in terms of the highest capacity added in a single year since independence, the achievement is well short of the official target of 21,441 MW set for the period.

Of the capacity achieved during the year, over 4,000 MW or close to 35 per cent was accounted for by the private sector, according to preliminary estimates compiled by the Government.

To put things in perspective, the capacity added during just two years of the Eleventh Plan (2010-11 and 2009-10) is higher than the cumulative capacity addition achieved during the entire five years of each of the last three Plan periods.

The country had seen a capacity addition of 20,950 MW in the Tenth Plan (2002-07), 19,119 MW in the Ninth Plan and 16,423 MW in the Eighth Plan.

The private sector's contribution to capacity addition has shown a progressively improving trend during the first four years of the current Plan period, despite most of these projects not having firm power purchase agreements, difficulties in getting site clearances, problems in open access, lower preference in allocation of fuel linkages, and impediments such as the need to furnish bank guarantees for getting transmission corridors built.

Private sector projects

The units that have already been commissioned in the private sector during the fiscal include Udupi Power Corporation Ltd's (UPCL) 600-MW first unit, a 300-MW unit of Rosa thermal power project, Adani Power-promoted Mundra projects' two units (660 MW), Sterlite's 600-MW unit in Orissa, a 600-MW unit of Lanco's Anpara-C project in Uttar Pradesh.

Govt projects

NTPC's 500-MW units at Korba, Farakka and Simhadri are among the key Central sector projects that came through while APGenco's 210-MW Rayalaseema project unit and the joint sector Aravalli Power Corporation's 500-MW unit are among the State sector projects.

With the capacity addition this fiscal tipping 12,000 MW, and if a similar figure is achieved in the next fiscal, an overall capacity addition of around 48,000 MW is seen as a possibility during the Eleventh Plan, another record by a wide margin.

This is, however, going to be well below even the downward revised target of 62,000 MW pegged for the current Plan period, which started with a target of 78,700 MW.

The overall capacity addition achievement during 2009-10 was about 66 per cent of the target (9,585 MW against a target of 14,507 MW). It was 31 per cent in 2008-09 (3,454 MW against a target of 11,061 MW) and 57 per cent in 2007-08 (9,263 MW against a target of 16,335 MW).

According to Government data, of the 9,263-MW commissioned in 2007-08, the private sector accounted for only about eight per cent. This improved to 25 per cent in 2008-09 (883 MW out of the 3,454 MW commissioned that year) and to 45 per cent during 2009-10 (4,310 MW out of 9,585 MW).

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