Coal power pace slows: How we're failing to use the electricity we produce

Nearly 40% of the country's coal-based capacity is unused because the core customers -- state-managed distribution companies -- struggle to increase purchases

India is adding the least amount of coal-fired power in more than a decade as tepid demand from indebted state retailers fails to utilise the nation's existing generation capacity. 

Coal-fired capacity, which accounts for more than three-quarters of the nation's electricity, rose by 809 megawatts (Mw) during the April-November period, according to Bloomberg calculations based on the latest available data from the Central Electricity Authority, the planning wing of the power ministry. That's the slowest pace since 680 Mw was added during the same eight-month stretch in 2006.

Power producers have cancelled some coal-fired projects as existing plants fail to sell all