Strong growth in generation of last 2 months sustains in Aug'14 as well

Power generation of the country in August 2014 registered a growth of 12.6%yoy. This is the third straight month where year on year growth in monthly power generation registered early to mid teens growth. The growth in generation in May 2014 was up by 15.7%yoy and that of Jul '14 was up by 11.8%yoy.

Strong growth in generation for the month of Aug 2014 is largely on account of strong 22.3% growth in generation of thermal power plants even as the generation from hydel and nuclear power plants decline by 12.1%yoy and 4.1%yoy respectively. The generation for the month of Aug 2014 stood at 89.90 billion units and of which about 68.9 billion units is contributed by thermal power generation, about 17.1 billion units by hydel power generation, about 2.9 billion units by nuclear power generation and balance by Bhutan imports.

Strong spurt in thermal power generation for the month is attributed to strong power generation from coal & lignite power plants as well as gas based power plants. The generation from coal & lignite power plant together was up by 22.8% to 65.2 billion units aided by increased generation capacity coming on stream in the last 12 months as well as about 4.98% jump in PLF to 60.83% in Aug 2014 compared to 55.85% in the corresponding previous period. Within this the generation of coal based power plants was up by 22.6%yoy to 62.3 billion units and the generation from lignite based power plants was up by 28.7%yoy to 2.9 billion units. Strong spurt in generation of lignite based power plants came on the low base as the generation of the same in Aug 2013 as the generation of Neyveli Lignite Corporation, the lignite behemoth of the country suffered for lack of lignite availability as the company faced strike in July 2013. This was reflected in 16.27percentage points jump in PLF to 73.29% in August 2014.

The gas based power generation that registered a negative growth in Jun 2014 after posting 16%yoy growth in May 2014 has now rebounded to register a growth of 14.8%yoy to 3.6 billion units. The generation of nuclear power plant was down by 4.1% as the overall PLF of nuclear power plants of the country stand lower by 3.42 percentage points to 81%.

The hydel power generation of the country in Aug 2014 stood lower by 12.1%yoy on a relatively high base. Last year had the benevolence of good south west monsoon and reservoirs having good storage leading to strong 18.6% jump in hydel power generation in 2013-14. But with deficit south west monsoon and reservoir levels significantly lower than last year, the hydel generation stood lower in Aug 2014.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News