Generation data from renewable energy, which has been recently clocking impressive growth levels, is not available yet.
Electricity produced by thermal power plants in March 2019 recorded a drop of 0.9% year-on-year (y-o-y), making it the third straight month when power electricity generated from these sources was lower than the corresponding period last year. However, thanks to the surge in power demand recorded around October, overall thermal generation in FY19 grew by 3.4% to 1,072 billion units. Utilisation levels of thermal generating stations in FY19 showed a tepid rise with plant load factor (PLF) rising just by 1.2 percentage points to 61%.
As reported by FE earlier, peak power demand of the country breached the 180 GW mark in October— the first time in history—when electricity consumed in the country was 14% higher than the corresponding month last year.
PLF of private plants remained muted at 54.9% in FY19, keeping their debt-servicing capabilities suppressed. The major units where PLFs fell the most (y-o-y) are Reliance Power’s 1,200 MW
Roja and 600 MW Butibori units, Jindal Power’s 1,000 MW Tamnar, Essar Power’s 1,200 MW Salaya, KSK Energy’s 1,200 MW Mahanadi, Adani Power’s 1,200 MW Udupi and Coastal Energen’s 1,200 MW Mutiara unit.
Major private generating stations where PLFs have increased are Adani Power’s 3,300 MW Tiroda, GMR Energy’s 1,370 MW Raikheda, JSW Energy’s 1,200 MW Ratnagiri, Sembcorp’s 1,320 MW Gayatri and CESC’s 600 MW Dhariwal plant.
Thermal plants owned by the states saw their PLF levels rise by 2.6 percentage points y-o-y to 57.7% in the same period. Central government-owned plants’ average PLF dropped 1.2 percentage points to 72.6%.
Generation data from renewable energy, which has been recently clocking impressive growth levels, is not available yet.
Source: financialexpress
