H1 power generation up 6.5% to 632 bu, Piyush Goyal tells House

NEW DELHI: Power generation in the country recorded a growth of 6.5 per cent in Aprilseptember period this fiscal at 632.11 billion units (BU) compared to year ago period, the Parliament was informed on Thursday.

“Electricity generation during the current year was more as compared to previous year. The power generation including from renewable sources during April to September, 2016 was about 632.11 BU as against 593.68 BU during the same period last year showing a growth of 6.5 per cent,” Power Minister Piyush Goyal stated in written reply to Lok Sabha.

According to the reply, 681.09 BU were available against the power demand of 686.09 BU during the AprilOctober period this fiscal recording a deficit of 0.7 per cent. In 2015-16, this deficit was 2.1 per cent.

Similarly, against the peak power requirement of 1.59 GW, as much as 1.56 MW was available in April-october period, resulting in peak power deficit of 1.6 per cent. Last fiscal, peak power deficit was 3.2 per cent.

The minister also stated that during 12th Plan(201217), a capacity addition of about 88928.2 MW from conventional sources have been achieved till October 31, 2016 and about 21,128 MW from renewable sources have been recorded till September 30, 2016.

He also said that the growth of domestic coal supply to power plants has been around 6.2 per cent during 2015-16.

During the 12th Plan, 1,00,468 ckm of transmission lines and 2,88,458 MVA of transformation capacity have been completed till October 31, 2016, he added.

In a separate reply, the minister said that Power Ministry has proposed to Finance Ministry to augment the budgetary allocation to power sector from Rs 12,252.71 crore in budget estimate to Rs 13,130 crore in revised estimates for 2016-17 and Rs 22,767.39 crore in budget estimate for 2017-18.

In another reply, the minister told the house that against identified capacity of 148.70 GW of large hydro (above 25 MW capacity), 38.32 GW capacity is under operation while 12.01 GW of capacities are under construction.

Construction of 94.89 GW of hydro power generation capacities is yet to be taken up, according to the reply.

The minister said,”the major reason for some of the hydro power projects not operating at their full capacity is availability of lesser water flows especially in the Southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh.”

“In addition, generation is affected in some of the stations like Rihand, Bhadra, Hirakud etc. due to ongoing renovation and modernization activities,” he added.

He further said, “The reasons for delay in respect of hydro projects under construction in private sector mainly include law and order issues, rehabilitation and resettlement, natural calamities, geological surprises, environmental clearances, financial constraints etc.”