The energy deficit in India’s power sector showed significant improvement in last four years, a report has shown. India’s energy deficit, which remained rangebound between 8% and 10% between during 2011-13, improved in FY14 to 4-4.5%, and subsequently contracted to 0.7%, a Care Ratings report has said.
“The improvement could be attributed to rapid addition in thermal capacity in the private sector, which led to increase in electricity production,” the report on four years of economic performance of the Narendra Modi government said. “This indicates improvement in electricity evacuation and power distribution infrastructure,” it added.
The energy deficit could be contained within 1% due to a massive push for infrastructure by the NDA government. The FY13-17 plan period saw private players commissioning 53,660 MW of thermal capacity, which was 23% more than the target, Financial Express reported on Monday. Overall capacity addition of 99,210 MW in the period was 12% ahead of the target.
With a rapid roll-out of coal generation, India is all set to overtake Japan and to have Asia’s second-largest power capacity, data showed. Fueled by a rapid rollout of coal-fired power generation, India will have a power capacity of 363.32 gigawatts in 2018, Bloomberg reported quoting a BMI Research report.
“India’s power sector will remain dominated by coal over the coming decade despite significant growth in cleaner sources – notably nuclear, non-hydro renewables and natural gas,” an analysis by BMI research said last year.