Demand for electricity in India was impacted by the sluggish industrial activities, as generation from conventional sources recorded its slowest growth during FY20 in the past decade.
Tentative data provided by power ministry indicates that net power output had marginally increased to 1252.61 BU in FY20 as against 1249.34 BU in FY19. In addition, it had also failed to attain its annual target of 1330 BU.
Of late, power output had shown sign of recovery during Jan-Feb’20 on account of early arrival of summer, after witnessing a continuous decline Y-o-Y for the past four months. However, any further correction was constrained by the nation-wide lock-down imposed towards the end of Mar’20 in order to combat COVID-19.
Conventional power generation in Mar’20 dropped 9% Y-o-Y to 97.7 BU compared with 107.14 BU in Mar’19.
Although, the government has permitted power utilities to continue uninterrupted operations during the lock-down period to ensure proper power supply. But, the demand was brought down by lack of activity across the industrial hubs.
Incidentally, electricity demand had declined 5% M-o-M to 98.824 BU in Mar’20.
Source-wise Power Generation:
Power generation from thermal sources (including coal, gas and diesel based plants) was limited by the remarkable growth in output recorded from hydro and nuclear plants, which had even produced higher power than their set target for the fiscal.
Thermal power generation decreased 3% Y-o-Y to 1044.55 BU in FY20 compared with 1072.22 BU in FY19. Whereas, output from hydro plants grew 16% on the year to 155.97 BU, which accompanied a 23% rise in nuclear power generation.
Remaining quantity of 5.81 BU was imported from Bhutan during the year.
| Source | Target for FY20 | Actual Generation in FY20 | Actual Generation in FY19 | % Change |
| Thermal | 1142.13 | 1044.45 | 1072.22 | -3% |
| Hydro | 136.932 | 155.97 | 134.89 | 16% |
| Nuclear | 44.72 | 46.38 | 37.81 | 23% |
| Import from Bhutan | 6.218 | 5.81 | 4.41 | 32% |
| Total | 1330 | 1252.61 | 1249.34 | 0% |
Source: Power Ministry
Quantity in BU
Bumpy rides ahead for coal-based utilities
Capacity addition of 6,765 MW in coal based power plants during FY20 indicate that coal would play a crucial role in India’s power generation.
However, a 7% drop in PLF during the fiscal imply that the power producers are likely to be impacted by the anticipated fall in prices on account of surplus power availability.
Coal based plants contributed 962.85 BU in the total conventional generation during FY20, which had fallen 3% Y-o-Y from 987.68 BU in FY19.
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