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Sharp rise in power deficit forecast

NEW DELHI: The Union Minister for Power, Sushil Kumar Shinde, has a tough task on his hands with the country facing with power shortages during the current summer season and the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) painting a grim scenario during 2009-10. The power deficit is set to rise further to up to 12.61 per cent of the total demand in 2009-10 despite record capacity addition of 12,770 MW planned for 2009-10.

With a number of power projects, including the Ultra Mega Power Projects, facing delays due to various reasons, the peak power deficit for 2009-10 is pegged at 12.61 per cent against 11.9 per cent in the previous year, according to a Central Electricity Authority (CEA) report.

The energy shortage is projected at 9.6 per cent this fiscal in the report which states that against the projected electricity requirement of 840,544 million units (MU), 762,215 MU would be available during 2009-10. The peak power requirement is estimated at 118,794 MU against the availability of 103,816 MU. The report clearly rules out the possibility of the country being power surplus in any month of 2009-10 stating the peak power deficit would range between 14.81 per cent in April and 6.32 per cent in August.

The report said that 10 out of 28 States could face peak power deficit of over 20 per cent while in seven States the peak electricity deficit would range between 10 per cent and 20 per cent. In the remaining 11 States, it would be less than 10 per cent.

The Northern, Southern and North-Eastern regions would be the worst affected as their peak power deficit could touch 15.5 per cent, 13.3 per cent and 14.8 per cent respectively.

The estimated peak power deficit in the Western and Eastern regions would be 8.2 per cent and 6.3 per cent respectively.

During 2008-09, against the energy demand of 777,039 MU, 691,038 MU was available with an energy deficit of 11 per cent. Peak demand during the last fiscal was 109,809 MU compared to the availability of 96,785 MU and registered a peak power deficit of 11.9 per cent.

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