According to the tentative report provided by the Power Ministry, Indian power generation from conventional sources has decreased 7% M-o-M to 95.12 BU(Billion Unit) in Nov’17 against 102.62 BU in Oct’17.
Monthly power generation in Nov’17 has fallen to its lowest total for FY18, as the relatively cool weather across the country lowers the power demand. On the yearly basis, Power generation was up 2% against 93.57 BU in Nov’16.
Source-wise Power Generation:
Power generation from Conventional sources include thermal power generation (from Coal, diesel and gas plants), Hydro power, Nuclear power and electricity imported from Bhutan.
During Nov’17, only Nuclear power had recorded growth while generation from other sources had fallen over the month.
Nuclear power generation was up 14% M-o-M to 3.57 BU in Nov’17, while Hydro power generation significantly reduced 34% on the month to 7.30 BU after the end of the monsoon period.
| Source | Nov’17 | Oct’17 | %Change |
| Thermal | 84 | 87.78 | -4% |
| Hydro* | 7.30 | 11.08 | -34% |
| Nuclear | 3.57 | 3.12 | 14% |
| Bhutan Imports | 0.25 | 0.63 | -61% |
| Total Conventional Sources | 95.12 | 102.62 | -7% |
Source: Power Ministry
Quantity in BU (Billion Units)
*excludes generation from Hydro stations upto 25 MW
Plant Load Factor (PLF) of thermal power plants slightly dropped to 59.47% in Nov’17 from 59.69% in Oct’17. PLF of Nuclear plants rose to the highest value for FY18, recorded at 73.11% in Nov’17, but were 6% lower on the year compared with 77.74% in Nov’16.
Total conventional power generation has increased 4% Y-o-Y to 809.257 BU during Apr’17-Nov’17, against the total generation of 777.822 BU power during the same period in FY17.
Improvement in domestic coal availability:
The decline in thermal power generation is likely to ease the unavailability of coal in domestic market, as the coal-fired power plants would burn lesser coal.
Moreover, CIL is also helping power plants to build sufficient coal stock by increasing coal supplies to power station. On the back of higher rake loading, CIL’s coal supplies to power utilities had rose 9% Y-o-Y to 40.92 MnT in Nov’17, compared with 37.56 MnT in Nov’16.
Coal stock at the Indian Power stations was 7.866 MnT as on 31 Oct’17, has now reached 11.157 MnT as on 7 Dec’17, sufficient for 8 days of power generation.
With CIL gearing to step up the coal supplies even further to pull back power stations out of criticality situation, the coal availability to Non-power sector is also expected to improve consequently.
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