Power capacity addition target for FY'13 set at 18k MW

NEW DELHI: Power Ministry is believed to have fixed a target of adding 18,000 MW capacity in the current financial year.

In a meeting between the Power Ministry officials and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Pulok Chatterji yesterday, the capacity addition target for 2012-13 was discussed, sources said.

The target may be around 16,000 MW during this fiscal, and also additional 2,000 MW of nuclear power capacity, sources said.

The government has added about 53,000 MW power generation capacity in the past five years (2007-12), around 9,000 MW short of the target of 62,000 MW.

The government had earlier set a target of over 78,000 MW for the 2007-12 period, which was curtailed to 62,000 MW in the Planning Commission's mid-term review due to lack of environment clearance for the coal blocks allotted for the power projects.

Even as power stations reel under acute shortage of coal, the ministry is hopeful of meeting this goal, by the end of this fiscal, sources added.

Power Ministry also envisages to add 76,000 MW in the coming five years (2012-17), even though the Planning Commission has proposed a target of above 90,000 MW during the same period.

The ministry is of the view that since coal and gas are unavailable at the moment, setting up a huge capacity would be difficult.

Meanwhile, the Working Group on Power for formulation of the 12th Plan has estimated total fund requirement of Rs 13,72,580 crore for the power sector. Of the total amount, power generation would need around Rs 6,38,600 crore, while the requirement for electricity distribution has been pegged at Rs 3,06,235 crore.

According to the Planning Commission estimates, the country's energy supply needs to grow at 6.5 per cent annually if the nation wants to achieve annual economic growth of 9 per cent during the 12th Five Year Plan period (2012-17) that commenced from April.