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• Hike in international coal prices could hamper plans, India likely to miss power capacity addition target in 2011-12Union Minister of Power Sushil Kumar Shinde has admitted that there would be no respite for existing coastal power project developers, including those developing Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPPs) because of the unprecedented hike in international coal prices in major exporting countries like Indonesia and Australia.The UMPPs got government nod to accelerate power production for meeting capacity addition targets but were asked to arrange for their own coal linkages. However, the paucity and high international coal prices are most likely to delay setting up of these proposed UMPPs eventually delaying the entire capacity addition programme.
• “However, the government will take some corrective measures to reduce the burden on consumers resulting from the enhanced price of imported coal,” Shinde said at a conference on ‘Distribution Reforms In Power Sector’ organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India here on Tuesday. “We have added over 60,000 mega watt (MW) in the last five years and synchronised a capacity of about 16,000 MW. Over 12,000 MW was commissioned in 2010-11, the highest capacity addition in a single year,” the minister added.However, the country could miss the power capacity addition target in 2011-12 as only 18,600 MW will be added in 2011-12 compared to 20,359 MW in 2010-11, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEW), the country’s power planning body.
• In a note sent to the Planning Commission, and Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM) headed by Shinde himself, the CEA expressed concern about the decline in new power generation capacity adding that under the current circumstances, total new capacity by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan in March 2012 will be 62,000 MW. The government had set itself an ambitious target of adding 1,78,000 MW in the current Five Year Plan (2007-12).“Contribution of private sector to capacity addition was a meager 10 per cent at the end of the 10th Five Year Plan but has shot up to about 36 per cent. The government expects more than half of investment in power generation from private sector during the 12th Five Year Plan,” Shinde said.
• On reforms in the power sector, Shinde said, “Mere unbundling of power utilities will not be enough to improve performance. Effective corporate governance and professional working of commercial entities are also necessary to ensure better results.”The minister also said that for development of electricity distribution, the DISCOMS were being encouraged to use information technology for energy audits and accounting to ensure technological upgradation and prevention of power theft.According to Shinde, transmission and distribution (T&D) losses have been brought down to 27 per cent in 2009-10 from nearly 40 per cent in 2001-02.India is among the four countries—behind Pakistan and Srilanka—in the world where T&D losses are above 20 per cent. The global average of T&D losses is about 4 per cent.

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