The country had a cumulative installed power capacity of 430 GW as of January, 2024, as per the latest report by Central Electricity Authority, including 182 GW of renewable energy and 240 GW from thermal sources.
The outstanding dues of electricity distribution entities (discoms) to gencos dropped more than a third since mid-2022 to under Rs 45,000 crore now, and was declining further at an unprecedented pace, Union minister for power, new and renewable energy R K Singh said on Wednesday.
This, and the fact that “states no longer default on release of the subsidy amounts,” have made the sector commercially viable after several years, the minister said, adding that the “Modi 3.0 government’s” first=100-days agenda would include a definitive action plan to double the capacities across the electricity value chain, from generation to distribution, by 2030.The minister recalled that, the power sector, long crippled by a vicious cycle of payment defaults, had seen nearly 70,000 MW of power capacities becoming insolvent, and a dearth of fresh private investments.
“Outstanding dues (to gencos) have come down to Rs 44,701 crore as of March 5, and all states are (complying),” Singh said, and noted that “at one point of time in 2022, these dues had touched a staggering Rs 1.35 trillion.”
The minister attributed the sector’s turnaround to various steps taken by the current government, including restrictions on defaulting discoms’ access to the power exchanges and the allowance for payments in installments. “I have also stopped funding by REC-PFC to loss-making discoms. We keep giving money to discoms, now we shall give money only with conditions attached to it. All these trajectories are in sync with one another. As a result, the AT&C losses, which were 27% in 2014 have come down to 15.41% in 2022-23. It has been a steady decline,” the minister said.
The country had a cumulative installed power capacity of 430 GW as of January 2024, as per the latest report by the Central Electricity Authority, including 182 GW of renewable energy and 240 GW from thermal sources.
Indications are the country’s electricity demand would seriously overshoot the supplies in the medium term, as the manufacturing sector shows its mettle and per-capita power consumption rises faster. As this raises the specter of prolonged outages during peak hours in the scorching summers over the next few years, the power ministry unveiled a contingency plan to add another 30 gigawatts (GW) of coal-based capacity to nearly 50 GW that was already in the works.