India to ambitiously increase generation by 28 000 MW in a year

• 13 years ago (2011-04-05)
• Junior Isles

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Indian Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has said over 28 000 MW of additional electricity generation capacity will be operating in the country by the end of the current financial year (2011-12).

"Over 28 000 MW of power projects are under construction... to be commissioned by March, 2012," he said, adding that the capacity addition would be from all sources of energy - – coal, hydro, gas, etc.

Over 21 000 MW of the targeted 28 000 MW would be contributed by thermal power projects, approximately 4100 MW would come from hydro power projects and the remaining 2500 MW would be nuclear energy.

The ministry has so far been able to add 34 462 MW of power during the current Plan period. The Planning Commission had revised the Power Ministry's earlier plan of adding over 78 000 MW power during the 11th Five-Year Plan Period (2007-12) to 62 000 MW.

However, the ministry is finding it difficult to meet the revised target due to the sluggish progress on hydro power projects.

It has added over 12 000 MW of electricity by commissioning 42 power projects by March, 2011, of which five are state-run NTPC's projects. What is more, as many as seven projects will be connected to the national grid during April.

"Over 3600 MW of electricity would be attached to the grid in the next 2-3 weeks," he added.

The Power Ministry has set a target for adding over 100 000 MW of electricity during the 12th Plan (2012-2017).

"Not only [in] this Plan period, about 79 000 MW of power projects are under construction already," he said.