In view of the projections of the Indian Metrological Department (IMD) which shows higher-than-normal maximum and minimum temperatures across the country, the Government of India is taking all necessary steps to ensure that the electricity demand in the upcoming summer season is met. A PIB Delhi report has stated that to ensure this and to emphasise zero load shedding during the summer season, Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy, R. K. Singh has held a series of meetings in the recently.
In a meeting held in the Ministry in 3rd week of March 2024, it was stressed that adequate advance planning should be done by all stakeholders, so as to prevent a situation in which one state has surplus power while another state faces power shortages.
Partial Outages of Thermal Power Plants being brought down
Another meeting has been held on 2nd April 2024 in which the Union Minister reviewed the power capacity status of all thermal power plants experiencing partial outages, with the aim of ensuring maximum availability of thermal capacity on bar. It was informed that the quantum of capacity under partial outages has come down and measures have been suggested in order to further reduce them.
Review of Non-Operational Thermal Power Capacity
The Minister also held a meeting with generation companies and reviewed the status of 5.2 GW of non-operational thermal capacity.
Planned Maintenance of Power Plants to be shifted to Monsoon Season
The Minister has directed to review the undertaking of planned maintenance of 1.7 GW in the month of April and 6 GW – 9 GW in the month of June. It has been decided that efforts are to be made to schedule / shift the planned outages of thermal units to the monsoon season.
New Capacity Additions to be Speeded up
Besides these, capacity additions in coal, hydro, nuclear, solar and wind would be monitored, so as to expedite their commissioning.
Surplus Power with Captive Generating Stations to be Utilized
It has also been decided to explore the possibility of harnessing any surplus power which may be available with captive generating stations.
Surplus Power to be offered for sale in Energy Exchange
It was also pointed out that all thermal generating stations must offer their un-requisitioned / surplus power in power exchanges, as mandated by the recently notified rules. It has been directed that compliance needs to be monitored regularly and notices issued for violation of directions.
Uniform Technical Minimum Loading of 55% of unit capacity for all coal-based thermal power plants
NTPC raised the issue of infeasible power scheduling by various Discoms. The Minister directed that uniform technical minimum loading of 55% of Unit capacity may be mandated for all coal-based power generators as has been implemented for Inter-State Generating Stations and Regional Load Despatch Centres. This is aimed at ensuring technical minimum conditions while issuing schedules and for the safety and reliability of the grid.
Operationalization of gas-based capacity to be reviewed, Need for Section 11 directions to be examined
The Power Minister has directed that a meeting is to be conducted with all developers of gas-based power projects as well, to review the operationalization of gas-based capacity during the summer season.
The Ministry will examine whether directions under Section 11 of The Electricity Act, 2003, under which the appropriate government may specify that a generating company shall, in extraordinary circumstances operate and maintain any generating station in accordance with the directions of that Government, needs to be issued to gas-based power plants, on similar lines as done for imported coal-based power plants, in order to ensure their operationalization during the upcoming summer season.
Section 11 Directions to be extended till September 2024, for Imported-Coal-Based Power Plants
It has also been decided that, considering the energy provided by imported coal-based power plants, the directions under Section 11 may be extended up to 30th September 2024.
Union Power Secretary Pankaj Agarwal; senior officers of CEA, NTPC, Grid India, Gencos, PFC and NVVN were part of the deliberations in the meetings chaired by the Union Minister.
In 2022-23, the peak energy demand grew by 12.7% from 2,15,888 MW to 2,43,271 MW in 2023-24, while the peak demand met grew by 13.9% from 2,10,725 MW in 2022-23 to 2,39,931 MW in 2023-24.
Relative to the year 2022-23, the energy requirement grew by 7.5% in 2023-24 and the energy availability grew by 7.8%, resulting in a reduction in total energy shortfall from 0.5% in 2022-23 to 0.2% in 2023-24.
The total electricity generated als0 grew by 7.1% from 1,621 billion units in 2022-23 to 1,736 billion units in 2023-24.
As regards coal-based electricity alone, the total energy generated grew in 2023-24 by 10.0% relative to 2022-23. Out of this, the energy generated from domestic coal-based power plants grew by 6.5% while that generated from imported-coal-based power plants grew by as much as 104.0%.
