Peak power supply shortage below 1,000 MW for four days

For the last four days in consecution, peak power supply shortage in India has been consistently below 1,000 MW for the first time ever.

This, however, has been a result of falling demand over the same period which also resulted in half the power offered for sale at power exchanges remaining unsold.

Recently, there have been instances of power deficit being less than 1000 MW but those have been one off instances. Between October 29 and November 1, the peak demand deficit hovered between 649 MW and 830 MW.

In fact, this year peak demand shortages hovered below 2000 MW even when demand had touched 150,000 MW. In contrast, the defcit used to be at least 5000 mw last year. “In papers we are close to attaining zero power deficit and large number of states record zero deficit for days on, however, distribution companies are still to buy the adequate volume of power for everyone.

Financial crunch with discoms have been a stumbling block in attaining a real zero deficit. The centre’s scheme UDAY is a step to solve the issue,” said an analyst on condition on anonymity.

According to data released by the National Load Despatch Centre – the pan India body that takes care of power flow in the country, demand declined from about 130,000 mw to 1,30,000 during the four days in which power deficit fell below 1000 mw. In fact, during these four days, only about 50% of the power offered for sale at the power exchanges found buyers even at prices as low as Rs 2 per unit or less.

Coal stocks dip in 58 power plants, govt denies shortage

Around 40 of the 101 power plants under daily review by the Central Electricity Authority have coal stocks for less than 15 days, six plants have supply for less than seven days and 12 for less than five days.  Power industry sources said the scarcity was due to a decline in coal supply and issues with operation of mines and evacuation.

“'There is no coal shortage. Stocks at two plants are super critical for different reasons,”said Anil Swarup, Union coal secretary. “The plant at Harduaganj is in this stage because coal was diverted to a more efficient plant at the request of the state government. At the Korba plant became super critical because the user agency could not arrange for its own wagon. However, both issues are being addressed,'” he added.

About the 40 plants with less than 15 days of coal, Swarup said it was due to excessive rain. Their stocks were not critical and were being made up regularly, he added. Swarup pointed out a number of plants did not want coal. They were rationalising inventory because coal supply was more reliable now, he said.

Coal production was down by 5.8 per cent in September while electricity generation went up by 2.2 per cent, year on year. “The April-October cumulative production of Coal India was 273.57 million tonnes against a target of 307 million tonnes. This must be causing the shortage of coal at power stations,” said Debashish Mishra, partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

Ashok Khurana, director-general of the Association of Power Producers, said these shortages did not reflect the general coal supply position. ''These are project specific and there will be individual reasons,” he said.

Govt, 3 PSUs to set up $2 bn equity fund for renewable

The Centre, along with state-run power entities NTPC, REC and PFC, will soon launch a USD 2 billion clean energy equity fund to support the government's ambitious target of adding 175 GW renewable energy generation capacity by 2022.

"New and Renewable Energy Ministry has already processed the proposal and sent it to the Finance Ministry to initiate a USD 2 billion clean energy equity fund to push renewable energy capacity addition as envisaged by the central government," a senior official in the know said.

"The fund should be launched soon, within this fiscal, as all the spadework has been completed by the New and Renewable Energy Ministry after discussing it at a length with NTPC Ltd, Rural Electrification Corp (REC) and Power Finance Corp (PFC)," he said. 

Ahead of the Paris climate talks in November last year, Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal had said that the central government is planning a USD 1 billion private equity fund for the renewable energy sector.

"We are planning a USD 1 billion private equity fund for renewable energy sector, initially seeded by government companies," Goyal had said during the 'Talkathon' event on the Paris conference. "The government is also seeking to collect USD 4 billion per year in the next 3-4 years for a clean energy fund," he had said.

The official further said: "Initial seed funding will be done by the central government to set up this fund from the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund. "The state-run NTPC, REC and PFC will also pitch in to create the fund."