Question : Thermal Power Plants

(a) the quantum of thermal power being generated in the country;

(b) whether the thermal power plants are functioning at less than half of their capacity;

(c) if so, the details thereof;

(d) whether Central Electricity Authority has warned that the thermal power plants are likely to be affected badly by the unexpected increase in the renewable energy generation capacity in the ensuing years;

(e) if so, the corrective measures taken by the Government in this regard; and

(f) the other steps taken by the Government for increasing the power generation with a view to ensure availability of more power in the country?

THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR POWER AND
NEW & RENEWABLE ENERGY

( SHRI R. K. SINGH )

(a) to (c) : During 2017-18, the generation from thermal power plants was 1037 Billion Unit (BUs) and the Plant Load Factor was 60.72%. The Plant Load Factor has improved to 63.24% during the current year 2018-19 (upto June, 2018) with a thermal generation of 274.6 BUs.

(d) to (f) : Central Electricity Authority in the National Electricity Plan has estimated that the demand as forecasted by 19th Electric Power Survey (EPS) will be fully met with the planned generation capacities including 175 GW from Renewable Energy Sources (RES). The likely PLF of coal based capacity during 2021-22 is expected to be 56.5%. During 2017-18 and the current year 2018-19 (upto June, 2018), it has been observed that the generation from renewable have helped the electricity grid in conserving coal and using it optimally to meet the base load requirement of the country.

The other steps taken by the Government for increasing the power generation with a view to ensure availability of more power in the country, inter-alia, are:

(i) Due to various schemes like ‘Power for all’ ‘Saubhagya’, ‘Make in India’ etc. the electricity demand will increase resulting in improvement of the PLF of coal based capacity in the country.

(ii) Allocation of Coal Blocks to power plants.
(ii) Ministry of Coal had issued policy guidelines for grant of bridge linkage to end use plants of Central and State public sector undertakings which have been allocated Coal mines/Coal blocks. Based on the policy guidelines for Bridge Linkage 27 Nos. Thermal Projects totaling to 33,320 MW were granted bridge linkage.

(iv) New and more transparent coal allocation policy for power sector, 2017 – SHAKTI (Scheme for Harnessing and Allocating Koyala (coal) Transparently in India) has been issued by Ministry of Coal in May, 2017. This new coal linkage policy would ensure a proper mechanism for sourcing coal by the power plants as per their schedules and would ensure that all projects are supplied coal as per their entitlement.

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