CAPACITY ADDITION
- The National Electricity Policy (NEP) had stipulated power for all and annual per capita consumption of electricity upto 1000 units by 2012. This entailed provision of adequate reliable power at affordable cost with access to all citizens.
- Electricity is included in the Concurrent List of the Constitution and the primary responsibility of structuring its availability and distribution is that of the States.
- The total installed power generation capacity of the country as on 31.12.2013 is 233,929 MW comprising of:
- 1,59,793 MW Thermal,
- 39,893 MW Hydro,
- 4,780 MW nuclear and
- 29,462 MW Renewable Energy.
- The total electricity generation in the country increased from 420.6 Billion Unit (BU) during 1997-98 to 2 BU during (April-November, 2013).
- The Government of India had launched an initiative for the development of coal-based Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPPS), each with a capacity of 4,000 MW.
- The objective of the initiative is to ensure cheaper tariffs utilizing economies of scale, catering to the need of a number of States and to mitigate the risk relating to tie up of land fuel, water and other statutory clearances etc.
- The projects are being awarded to the successful developers on the basis of tariff based competitive bidding route employing super critical technology.
- To tie-up for necessary inputs and clearances such as provision of site, fuel through captive mining blocks, water and in-principle environment and forest clearances, project-specific shell companies (SPVs) are set up as wholly owned subsidiaries of the Power Finance Corporation Ltd. (PFC) — the nodal agency for these projects.
- These SPVs, along with the various clearances etc. are subsequently transferred to the successful developer.
- Four UMPPs namely:
- Sasan in Madhya Pradesh,
- Mundra in Gujarat,
- Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh
- Tilaiya in Jharkhand
have already been awarded to the successful bidders and are at different stages of development.
UMPPS TO PIPELINE
- A site at Husainabad, in Deoghar district has been identified for and setting up of 2 UMPPs in Jharkhand.
- A site at Bijoypatna in Bhadrak District and Narla & Kasinga in Kalahandi District has been identified for setting up of additional UMPPS in Odisha.
- A site at Kakwara in Banka district has been identified for setting up of UMPP in
- A site at Niddodi village in Karnataka has been identified for UMPP by CEA and Govt. of Karnataka.
- The sites in Tamil Nadu & Gujarat for their second UMPPS are being examined by CEA.
DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL GRID
- As on November 30, 2013, National Grid with inter-regional power transfer capacity of about 31,850 MW was established.
