The Ministry of Power is in no rush to tender ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) given the present demand-supply projection for electricity in the country.

“I keep calibrating this (ultra mega power projects) based on the overall study of demand and supply. I am not taking any decision in a rush. The focus has shifted toward making sure fuel is available, making sure enough transmission capacity is there, making sure distribution is organised and there is a better last mile connectivity,” Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy, told BusinessLine .

However, the Minister also added: “The domestic coal-based UMPP’s bidding documents are ready. They have gone for inter-ministerial consultations and will come up in the Cabinet very soon. After that, we are ready with about three UMPPs for competitive bidding.”

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the Centre proposes to set up five new UMPPs in his Budget speech for 2015-16.

Total electricity generation in January 2016 was 91.691 billion units, 6 per cent more than that in the same month last year. Between April-January 2015-16, the generation has been 4.62 per cent more than the same period last year, at 921.862 billion units.

Despite the increase in electricity generated, thermal power plants in India have operated at 61.81 per cent plant load factor between April-January 2015-16 compared with 64.52 per cent in the same month last year. Plant load factors indicate the capacity utilisation of plants.

The higher generation and lower capacity utilisation has been enough to bring down the power deficit in the country to 2.2 per cent between April-January 2015-16 compared with 3.8 per cent in the same period last year.

Bio-mass stove On the Unnat Chulha Abhiyan, a scheme under the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy to distribute bio-mass fuelled cooking stoves to poor households, Goyal said it will be discontinued as the focus of the Centre has shifted to providing LPG connections as cooking fuel for poor households.

“There is always a transition phase. India has a large amount of population still below the poverty line. Until now, we did not have the ability to serve them with a better fuel. So, instead of no fuel, we gave them the bio-mass fuelled Unnat Chulhas. Now, because of the Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG through which we have saved money by people giving up the subsidy and curbing the leakages in the system, we are now able to give discounted LPG connections,” said Goyal.

The Union Budget 2016-17 has made a provision for ₹2,000 crore to provide three crore below poverty line households with a discounted LPG connection.

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