Shortfall in capacity addition: Government

New Delhi, Mar 4: The government has said there was a shortfall in capacity addition in the tenth plan period of 23,250 MW against a target of 41,110 MW.

The plan originally envisaged introduction of super criticial thermal power projects in the country. These projects aggregating 3,960 MW could not be taken up due to delay in technology tie-up.

Hydro projects aggregating over 6,200 MW slipped mainly due to delay in clearance, investment decision, award of works, geological surprises and sourt cases, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said.

''Private projects aggregating about 1,200 MW could not materialise as there was no delay in obtaining financial closure of these projects,'' Mr Shinde said in the parliament.

He said in case of projects aggregating over 5,000 MW date of commssioning as per contractual commitment was no adhered to and these projects slipped due to delay in critical supplies by the equipment manufacturers.

The shortfall was also due to non availability of adequate gas, commissioning of projects aggregating over 1,700 MW was delayed and another 1,450 MW worth projects could not be taken up, Mr Shinde said.

The National Electricity Policy envisages ''Power for all by 2012'' and per capita availability of power will be increased to over 1,000 units by 2011-12. To achieve this, the Central Electricity Authority has projected that a total capacity addition of about 1,00,000 MW is required during the 10th and 11th plan.

Keeping the capacity of 23,250 MW which is likely to be added during 10th plan, over 76,000 MW is required to be added during the 11th plan. Coal will remain the mainstay in the fuel mix and during the 11th plan, 57,047 MW is being proposed as thermal capacity addition. Out of this 51,355 MW is to be coal fired.

Out of the proposed hydro capacity addition of 16,253 MW, 12,863 MW (79 per cent) are already under construction. The total proposed muclear capacity of 3160 MW is already under construction, the power minister said.

Mr Shinde said several short term measures are being carried out to increase capacity. There would be rigorous monitoring of production, transportation and stocking of coal at all major coal plants of the country to ensure adequate availability of fuel to meet the improved PLF of coal stations. There would be also tapping of surplus power from captive power plants. Inter -state and inter-regional transmission capacity will be strengthened and demand side management will be promoted.

In the long term a national grid for optimim utilisation of generation capacity will be created. A 50,000 MW hydro initiative has been launched and sites have been identified for thermal capapcity of over 100,000 MWs.

Also ultra mega power projects will be implemented with a capcity of 4000 MW each.

UNI