Retirement of old thermal plants to shift demand to short-term power market

An investor presentation by Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) says the overall power generation in the country increased by 3.8 per cent during April-December of FY18

The phasing out of vintage and inefficient thermal power plants across the country is expected to shift demand to the short-term power market.

According to the guidelines issued by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), thermal power generating stations which have completed 25 years of commercial operations are to either shut down or renovated. Alternatively, the thermal power plants can switch to super critical technology to still continue operations. But, the switch to the super critical technology seeks to escalate capital cost by 20-25 per cent.

Across the country, 40037 Mw of thermal power capacities were commissioned before 1993 and are headed for