India: Power Generation Up 5% Y-o-Y in H1 FY18

Indian Power generation from conventional sources has increased 5% Y-o-Y to 611.27 BU (Billion Units) during the first half of the current fiscal year (Apr’17-Sep’17). The country had produced 584.47 BU power during H1 FY17(Apr’16-Sep’16), according to the tentative report provided by CEA.

Conventional sources include thermal power plants (coal, diesel, and gas based), Hydro power plants, Nuclear power plants and electricity imported from Bhutan.

Total power generation during H1 FY18 was 97% of the programmed schedule of 629.783 BU set for the period. CEA has targeted 1229.4 BU power generation in FY18 (Apr’17-Mar’18).

Break-up of Power Generation:
Power generation from Thermal and hydro sources both had witnessed a 5% growth Y-o-Y in H1 FY18. Power from nuclear plants had fell 10% Y-o-Y to 17.065 BU.

Source: CEA
Quantity in BU
*excludes generation from Hydro stations upto 25 MW 

Monthly power generation was 4.5% higher on the year at 102.516 BU in Sep’17. But, generation was almost constant from the previous month’s total of 102.711 BU.

Generation from Hydro plants dropped 9% M-o-M to 14.065 BU in Sep’17 due to lower  monsoon, which had a programmed schedule of 17.02 BU power generation for the month.

In the period of lower output from hydro sources, thermal plants had step up power generation, resulting in increased coal demand which CIL had failed to cater. As a result coal stocks at many power stations are below the critical level.

On the other hand, because of the increased power demand, Plant load factor (PLF) of coal plants had rose to 60.69 in Sep’17 comparable with 57.93 in Sep’16. PLF during H1 FY18 was recorded at 59.97.

Capacity Addition during Sep’17:
India’s total installed capacity reached 329298.27 MW as on Sep’17, with the commissioning of 622 MW power units in thermal and hydro sector.

Three units of DVC’s coal plants at Jharkhand were also retired during the month, which took coal plant’s share in total capacity to 193426.5 MW.