India’s power plant capacity has attained a new milestone by crossing the 400 giga-watt (GW)-mark at the end of April, 2022.
These facilities comprise thermal, renewable and nuclear plants which contribute to the country’s overall power generation.
During April, plant capacity of close to 1,513 mega-watt (MW) was added in the renewable segment, thereby, taking the net capacity to 401,010 MW at the end of the month.
Source-wise installed capacity
India’s energy needs are catered primarily by the coal-fired plants, and these account for almost half of the total installed capacity.
At the end of April, coal-fired plant’s installed capacity which was recorded at 204,080 MW, held a clear majority over the renewables (including large hydro plants) which stood at 158,122 MW.
However, the country is gradually making efforts to reduce carbon emission by increasing its fleet of renewable plants.
Evidently, the net capacity addition in the coal segment was 1.38 GW in FY22, down 67% y-o-y from 4.13 GW in FY21. The capacity addition in renewables increased 109% y-o-y to 15.45 GW in FY22.
The data also highlights a lack of substantial development in nuclear power as it had not seen any capacity addition since FY17.
Coal-based power generation continues to be robust
Notwithstanding the government’s push for renewables, coal-fired plants has again come to the rescue to satiate the country’s elevated power demand this year.
It is important to note that supply constraints resulting from a series of factors including – seasonal variations, lack of power purchase agreements and wide fluctuation in generation schedule – pose challenges with regard to the operations of renewable sources.
This has compelled coal plants to scale up generation volumes by operating at higher capacities.
Power generation from the coal plants increased 9% y-o-y to 105.6 billion units (BU) in April, 2022, contributing 76% in the total output. Besides, the plant load factor (PLF) of these facilities was recorded at 72.58% in April compared to the lows seen during the pandemic times when PLF had dropped to 41.66% in April, 2020.
The dependency on coal-based plants to meet the base load is expected to continue in the short-to medium-term till technology development involving energy storage is put in process on a mass-scale.
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