Deficient rains to increase power shortfall

India's peak power deficit could widen in the current fiscal year to 12.6 per cent, which would be higher than the 11.9 per cent in the 2008-09 fiscal that ended in March, Bharatsingh Solanki, minister of state for power, has said.

The government, he said, had planned to add 78.7 gigawatts of generating capacity during the five-year period ending March 2012, of which 15.1 GW has been commissioned.

In a written reply to questions in the parliament, Solanki said that over the past two financial years, India's power generation was below set targets on account of fuel shortages.

According to the projections of the Central Electricity Authority, energy availability in the country would fall short by 9.3 per cent or 78,429 mega units (MU) and peak power would fall short by 12.6 per cent or 14.98 GW in 2009-10, he said.

Replying to a separate question, minister for power Sushil Kumar Shinde said the country's peak power shortage was around 12.3 per cent and energy deficit 9.8 per cent during April-June period.

During June, due to sluggish monsoon, India's hydropower generation was 9.3 per cent less than that a year earlier, he pointed out.