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Slowdown hits power sector, capacity addition targets slip

Just like the road sector, capacity addition targets in the power sector for 2013-14 have…

Just like the road sector, capacity addition targets in the power sector for 2013-14 have also hit the slow lane. This bucks the trend for the past two years that saw capacity addition exceeding the targets set.

According to the ministry of power data, at January-end this fiscal, power capacity addition stood at 57% of the full-year target at 9,400 MW with little chance that 2013-14 target of 16,402 MW would be achieved.

The ministry provided the information at a meeting convened by member (energy) Planning Commission BK Chaturvedi, who has been assigned the task of quarterly monitoring of targets of key infrastructure sectors by the government. In 2012-13, capacity addition exceeded the target of 17,956 MW by a good margin with the year closing with fresh capacities being added of 20,623 MW.

Even in 2011-12, the capacity addition exceeded the target of 17,601 MW by closing the year with fresh capacity of 20,501 MW.?We have started seeing signs of a general slowdown in the economy on the country’s power capacity addition programme. The spurt is addition now is flowing from projects that have slipped from 11th Plan onwards. With sluggishness in investments being seen over last couple of years in the power sector, there could be sudden drop in the amount of fresh capacity being added in the later part of the 12th Plan,? said Kalpana Jain of Deloitte.

As per the data, in the first three quarters of current fiscal, against a target of 14,466 MW, actual capacity addition has been mere 8,728 MW or 60% of the period target.

Though a capacity of another 5595 MW has been synchronised, it is yet to reach commercial operation and may face delays due to fuel related issues.In the October -December quarter of 2013-14, capacity of 3,930 MW has been added, which is 74% of the target of 5,270 MW. An interesting aspect this quarter is that while both central sector and state sector projects have slipped, private sector projects have surpassed the targeted addition, adding 1625 MW to overall capacity.

In the central sector, the slipped projects from Q3 quarter includes two units of Parbati-III, Tripura CCGT, Uri II unit 4, and Kundakulam unit 1.

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First published on: 01-03-2014 at 22:59 IST
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