Govt targets over 1,000 billion units of power generation in FY15

The government has set a target of generating over 1,000 billion units of electricity during the current financial year, according to official data.

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) estimates generation of 1,023 billion units in 2013-14, an increase of about 5% from the previous financial year.

The government hopes to achieve generation of 252 billion units in the April-June period, while the target for each of the subsequent quarters is 257 billion units.

According to the CEA, over 393 billion units may be generated from central utilities and over 368 billion units from state utilities, while the remainder will come from private entities.

About 5 billion units will be produced using power imported from neighbouring Bhutan.

In 2013-14, power generation was 967 billion units, short of the target of 975 billion units.

The CEA estimates 859 billion units of electricity will be generated by thermal power projects during 2014-15.

Of this, 784 billion units are expected to come from coal-based stations and the remaining 75 billion units from fuels such as lignite, naphtha, diesel and natural gas.

Thermal power's contribution in the previous financial year was 792 billion units.

The target for hydel generation has been lowered by the CEA to 124 billion units from 135 billion units in 2013-14.

Megawatt (MW) refers to generation capacity while million units indicates the amount of power or energy produced. One MW can produce 1,000 units of electricity in one hour.