India Power Sector

INDIA – Power Sector: Emerging Developments & Critical issues 1. Introduction Large number of power projects (XI and XII five year plans) is under construction to overcome the power shortages and meet the growing energy requirements in the country. However, the sector has been encountering problems on account of inadequate / depleting conventional fuel resources, slippages in capacity addition, transmission / open access constraints and high Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT & C) losses in the country. Since the formulation of Electricity Act 2003, Government of India (GoI) has been taking several initiatives and announced various regulations to strengthen the sector. Significant GoI / regulatory initiatives in recent times have been those pertaining to Mega / Ultra Mega Power Generation projects revised tariff regulations for existing central government projects, competitive bidding for all future power generation projects, tariff norms for renewable energy / introduction of Renewable Energy Certificates, new transmission pricing grid code, power market regulations, Re – structured Accelerated Power Development Reform Programme (APDRP2), National Electricity Fund, etc. 2. Projected demand, XII plan capacity additions and projected investment • According to 17th Electric Power Survey (2007), the energy requirement in the country is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.5% during 12th plan period reaching from 9,68,658 Giga Watt hour (Gwh) in FY 2012 to 13,92,065 Gwh by FY2017, while peak load requirement is projected to grow from 1,57,324 MW in FY2012 to 2,23,660 MW in FY 2017 at a CAGR of 7.4%. The regionwise projection in energy and peak load requirement during the period FY2012 to FY2022 is shown in Annexure II. • Ministry of Power and Central Electricity Authority (CEA) have projected a total investment requirement of Rs. 11,35,142 crore for the power sector during the 12th Plan period, which also includes investment for generation capacity addition of about