The Hindu Business Line : Power capacity addition targets go for a toss

New Delhi, April 12 There is unlikely to be any respite from power shortages, with the Centre’s power capacity addition targets clearly fizzling out and key utilities facing slippages.

NTPC Ltd, which has been central to the capacity addition programme over the years, has been considerably slow in the start-up years of the current Plan and managed to commission just 1,000 MW in 2008-09, as against a target of 2,800 MW.

With lacklustre progress by State utilities and private players as well, the Centre’s capacity addition target of around 11,000 MW for 2008-09 has been missed by a mile, with only 4,900 MW coming through till end-March, according to Central Electricity Authority (CEA) estimates. The sluggishness has been attributed to site clearance issues, delay from equipment manufacturers, problems on the supply of balance-of-plant equipment and fuel linkages not coming through.

With delays in capacity augmentation, NTPC’s power generation was higher by only 3 per cent in 2008-09 — as against a 6.5 per cent increase in 2007-08 — despite its plants operating at over 91 per cent plant load factor (PLF) during the fiscal.

“Capacity addition has been slow in coming, affecting incremental gross generation. During 2008-09, but for the fourth quarter (when commissioning of a 500 MW Kahalgaon Stage II unit took place), the increase in generation would have been even lower. For the nine months of the last fiscal, NTPC’s gross generation registered only an increase of 1.89 per cent over the same period of 2007-08,” a Government official said.

According to the CEA data, during April-February 2008-09, the slippages were mainly in thermal power projects, with the Central sector responsible for underachievement of its targets by over 78 per cent, the State sector by 54 per cent and the private sector by 82 per cent.

Other than NTPC, Neyveli Lignite Corporation reported delays at its Barsingsar Lignite station (two units of 125 MW) in Rajasthan, and Damodar Valley Corporation saw slippages in its Chandrapura thermal power station extension project (two units of 250 MW each). Besides this, the nuclear capacity addition of 440 MW during 2009-10, through the commissioning of NPCIL’s Rajasthan Atomic Power Plant (RAPP) unit-5 and 6, has been missed completely.

Going by the performance so far, NTPC has managed only 12 per cent of the capacity addition target of 22,400 MW set for the current Plan, even as 40 per cent of the five-year period has elapsed. “NTPC is yet to order equipment for around 8 per cent of the planned capacity addition and slippages are likely to continue,” an analyst said.

According to CEA officials, NTPC is projected to add 15,700 MW capacity by 2011-12, a likely shortfall of 6,700 MW.

In the light of slippages in the last fiscal, NTPC now hopes to add 3,300 MW in 2009-10, as against a lower target of 2,800 MW set earlier.