The government today said that there is adequate power available in the country to meet the demand of consumers. “Adequate power is available in the country to meet the demand of power of the consumers who are having access to electricity,” the power ministry said in a statement. In 2013-14, the demand-supply gap in terms of energy and peak stood at 4.2 per cent and 4.5 per cent respectively. This has now come down to an all-time low of 0.7 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively, in 2016-17. The gap is on account of factors other than inadequacy of power in the country. The gross generation in the country, which reflects the consumption by consumers (other than about 0.2 per cent growth rate of export to Bangladesh and Nepal), increased from 1,020 billion units (BUs) in 2013-14 to 1,242 BUs in 2016-17, showing a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.8 per cent. Generation capacity addition target during the period 2012-17 from conventional sources was 99,209.47 MW against a target of 88,537 MW, over-achieving the same by 112 per cent. Conventional generation capacity addition achieved in the past three years (2014-15, 2015-16 & 2016-17) has been 60,752.6 MW, which is about 61 per cent of the total capacity addition achieved during this period.
In 2015-16, conventional generation capacity addition achieved was 23,976.6 MW which is the largest-ever capacity addition in a single year. The renewable energy sources installed capacity as on March 31, 2014 was 31,692.14 MW. As on March 31, 2017 India has achieved an installed capacity of 57,260.2 MW of renewable energy sources showing an increase of 80 per cent during 2014 -2017. The quantum of “energy not supplied” has reduced substantially from 42.4 BU in 2013-14 to 7.6 BU in 2016-17, a reduction of 82 per cent.
The energy actually used by all the consumers including industries, grew at an even higher rate. The gross generation in the country, which reflects the consumption by consumers (other than about 0.2 per cent growth rate of export to Bangladesh and Nepal), increased from 1,020 BUs in 2013-14 to 1,242 BUs in 2016-17, showing a CAGR of 6.8 per cent. “The reason that there is a higher growth in gross generation, vis-à-vis energy supplied by State Distribution Utilities, is that many industries are now purchasing power through open access from IPPs without contracts with the states,” it said.
Therefore, the consumption of these industries has reduced from the state utilities and increased through open access, which is reflected as generation increase from IPPs without contracts. This growth rate is, in spite of energy conservation and efficiency improvement measures. Without the energy efficiency measures, the growth rate would have been much more.
Source: PTI
