Centre directs States to run power plants at full capacity as demand grows at 20%

The Union Power Minister R K Singh on Monday directed all the States and Union Territories to run their power plants at full capacity in a bid to meet the rising power demand, which grew in between August and October at 20 per cent on an annual basis.

Addressing the two-day national conference of Power and New and Renewable Energy Ministers of States and Union Territories in the national capital, Singh said that higher power demand reflects in the growth in India’s economy.

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“Also, we met peak demand of 2.41 lakh megawatt (MW) recently while peak demand was 1.9 lakh MW in 2017-18. If the peak demand grows even higher, we may not be able to meet it. This is one challenge we need to address,” he added.

Singh further said, “We observe that some States do not run their power plants at peak capacity and instead seek power from the Centre’s pool. If some State is not running their plants at peak demand, we will not be able to supplement from the central pool. We have to focus on making sure that all our plants run and all our plants run at full capacity.”

Coal shortage

Singh said that even as Coal India (CIL) has increased the production of the dry fuel, the requirement has increased in line with the rising power consumption. The daily shortage of coal has hit 2.5 lakh tonnes.

The Union Ministry has already directed all the power Gencos to import coal now at 6 per cent as against 4 per cent earlier.

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The Minister stressed that available coal will have to be distributed equitably among States, depending on the requirements.

Singh said that till the time renewable energy is available round-the-clock (RTC), the country will have to depend on coal-fired thermal capacity.

Thermal capacity

Singh said that in FY24 around 10 gigawatts (GW) of thermal capacity is expected to be added.

The Minister during the meeting with the States also emphasised that more coal-fired power capacity will be required to meet the country’s growing demand.

“Earlier, around 25,000 MW was under construction, mostly in the public sector. But this was not sufficient; so, we started work on adding 25,000 MW, but we need to start work on an additional 30,000 MW. I.e., we need about 80,000 MW of thermal capacity under construction. All this capacity addition is being done through the public sector, private sector investment has not started coming, but I am quite certain that private sector investments will come, as we have made the system viable and the sector gives returns,” the Minister said.

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