Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the energy planner in India, has set an annual power generation target of 1330 Billion Units from the conventional sources during FY20.
The set output was raised by 5% from previous fiscal’s target of 1265 BU.
The continuous rise in India power consumption over the year has been catered by a subsequent increase in generation. Accordingly, output in FY19 had rose 4% Y-o-Y to 1249.34 BU, but was slightly lesser than its annual target.
In order to meet the set goal for FY20, output targets of all the individual sources have been increased.
Thermal plants have been assigned output target of 1142.13 BU for FY20, up 5% Y-o-Y from 1091.5 BU.
Generation target for hydro sources has been set at 136.93 BU in FY20.
It is pertinent to note that the generation program had been allocated on the basis of actual generation of stations during previous years; maintenance schedules furnished by the stations and anticipated new capacity additions during FY20.
However, the actual generation could be varied due to change in actual maintenance schedules of stations, sudden outages of units and actual commissioning of new capacities.
Besides, change in overall generation mix due to constraints in availability of specific sources like hydro or gas may also impact the actual output figures.
In fact, hydro sources had contributed 134.89 BU of power during FY19, which was a tad higher than its annual target. While remaining sources (thermal, nuclear and electricity imported from Bhutan) had failed to meet their respective targets during the year.
Annual output from nuclear plants has been fixed at 44.72 BU in FY20, 16% higher on the year from previous fiscal’s target.
Electricity to be imported from Bhutan was fixed at 6.22 BU in FY20. India had imported a total of 4.41 BU of electricity from Bhutan in FY19, down 8% Y-o-Y from 4.78 BU in FY18.
Interestingly, India had emerged as the net exporter of electricity during FY18, wherein power supplied to Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar, was significantly higher than that imported from Bhutan.
Indian power ministry has not yet released the export figures for FY19.
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