PowerMin sends 12th Plan capacity proposal to PlanCom

The Ministry of Power is believed to have sent its proposal for addition of 76,000 Mw of power capacity in the 12th Five-Year Plan to the Planning Commission, even as the sector battles acute fuel shortages and environmental issues.

The Power Ministry has set a target for adding 76,000 MW of electricity capacity in the 12th Plan (2012-17) and 93,000 MW in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2017-2022). The ministry is understood to have sent the recommendation to the Plan panel.

"We have finalised 76,000 Mw capacity addition for the 12th Plan and 93,000 MW for the 13th Plan... Now the Planning Commission has to approve it," a Power Ministry official told PTI.

Planning Commission Member B K Chaturvedi had earlier said the Planning Commission may fix a target for about 1,00,000 Mw of capacity addition in the power sector.

During this period, an investment of about Rs six lakh crore is expected in power generation projects.

The government had earlier set a goal for adding 78,577 MW of electricity capacity during the 11th Five-Year Plan, which was scaled down to 62,000 MW by the Planning Commission in its mid-term review, citing environmental and land acquisition hurdles.

However, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde recently said the sector would not be able to achieve even the revised target and may end up adding 52,000 MW during the five-year period to March, 2012.

The remaining capacity addition target would be carried forward to the next Plan.

He said the country has achieved about two-and-a-half times the capacity addition witnessed in the 10th Plan.

The Power Ministry may not be able to meet its target for the 11th Plan due to environmental issues and coal and gas shortages.

Power projects being executed by state-owned hydro-power generation company NHPC, which were scheduled for commissioning during the current Plan, would now start electricity generation in the 12th Plan.

NHPC's 2,000-Mw Subansiri project in Assam and 3,000-MW Dibang project in Arunachal Pradesh are still awaiting environment clearances.

The country's largest power producer, NTPC, which had set itself a mammoth target of becoming a 75,000 Mw company by 2017, is also believed to have brought down this target to 70,000 Mw because of scarcity of gas.