India: Coal-Fired Plants’ Power Generation Rise by 5% in Jan’17

Power generation from coal increased by 5% Y-o-Y despite fall in utilization factor.

India’s power generation from coal-fired plants witnessed a rise by 5% Y-o-Y to 79.23 BU (Billion Units) compared with 77.78 BU in Jan’16. However, Monthly generation didn’t change by much, which has marginally increased by 0.23% M-o-M from 79.05 BU in Dec’16.

Growth in power generation has been seen in spite of declining Plant load factor (PLF) which has fallen to 60.37 in Jan’17 from 63.2 in Jan’16. Growth in renewable energy plus an increase in capacity addition with many of these power plants being under-utilized has contributed to the declining PLF.

Out of the total power generation in Jan’17, Central run plants produced 25.17 BU; State sector produced 25.45 BU. Private Sector plants generated largest share of power generation with 28.61 BU.

Power generation from Conventional sources which includes Thermal (Coal, Gas, Diesel), Hydro, Nuclear generation and electricity imported from Bhutan stood 95.33 BU in Jan’17 increased by 3.48% Y-o-Y against 92.13 BU.

Source: Power Ministry Report

Power Plant Installed capacity:
India’s Total power plant installed capacity stands at 314642.33 MW as on Jan’17. In Jan’17, one power plant in the Thermal sector and two units in Hydro projects were commissioned with the total capacity addition of 1112.25 MW during the month.

Thermal:
Namrup Gas based CCPP was commissioned on 11.01.2017 in the state sector of Assam.

Hydro:
Teesta-III U-1, 2, 3, 5, 6(5×200 MW) has been added to the state sector of Sikkim.
Nagarjuna Sagar U-1, 2 (2×25 MW) has been added to the state sector of Andra Pradesh.

Apart from new capacity addition, 5 old and aged thermal power plant units were retired in Jan’17.

Gandhi Nagar TPS U-1, 2 (2×120) have been retired from state sector of Gujarat.
Lakwa TPS U-1(15 MW) retired from state sector of Assam.
Ennore TPS U-5(110 MW) retired from state sector of Tamilnadu.
Belgaum DG set U-1, 2, 3, 4, 5(5×16.26 MW) retired from private sector of Karnataka.
Chandrapura TPS U-1(130 MW) retired from central sector of DVC.

Source: Power Ministry Report

Power Plant Load Factor (PLF):
India’s Power plant utilization factor(PLF) for coal and lignite based plants saw a yearly decline by 5% to 60.37 in Jan’17 as compared to 63.2 in Jan’16.

The decline in utilization factor was driven by large under-utilized capacity, muted demands, bunched capacity addition and continued investments in renewable sources.

Central-run power plants’ PLF has increased both on the monthly and yearly basis to 72.43 in Jan’17.

While PLF for state and private sector power plants have declined on yearly basis to 5% and 10% respectively. Lack of Power purchase agreements (PPA) and weak Distribution Company (DISCOM) was the reason for poor performance from private sector plants.

Source: Power Ministry  Report
For Coal and Lignite based Plants