PIB News Update:The Ministry of Power has clarified reports which has recently appeared in a section of media alleging that there has been fall in demand for power in the country. Following is the detailed clarification issued by the Ministry in this regard which brings out that the reports are factually inaccurate and have drawn wrong conclusions:
“The monthly growth in electrical energy availability in the country has been in the range of 6.5% to 8.5% from April, 2019 to July, 2019. The growth during the 1st quarter of the current year was around 7.5%, and in July it was 6.7%. Only in the month of October there was a decline because the rainfall was 35% above normal in October, 2019 resulting in reduction in demand in agriculture sector and the reduction in cooling requirement in the domestic and commercial sectors.
Indian was blessed with the prolonged rainy season and good rainfall the current year 2019-20 (up to October 2019). Due to this there has been 16% growth in generation from Hydro and around 22% growth in hydro power imported from Bhutan. There has been 27% growth in generation from nuclear power plants and 24% growth in generation from solar. Thus, the share of green power i.e. generation from non-fossil fuel has been around 27.3% a substantial increase wrt 19.6% during the 2015-16.
Making a judgment on one month’s data ignoring the high growth in the other months is nonsensical. Some have spoken about the PLF of thermal power plants being less now than that during the same period previous year. This is because we are changing the energy mix in order to reduce our carbon –footprint. As pointed out above, the generation from renewable is up by 18.6% and from Hydro is up by 25.1% in the first quarter.The generation from Hydro is up by 9.1% in the second quarter. The generation from nuclear power has increased by 11.2 % in 1st quarter and 43.3 % in the 2nd quarter. Naturally, the PLF of the thermal plant will be less.
Now the monsoon and windy season is over, the generation from hydro and wind has started reducing. Thus, from November 2019 till March 2020 the electricity demand will largely be met from thermal power stations. Thus the PLF of thermal power station for the year 2019-20 would improve to around 60% as per the target.”