New Delhi: A total of 12.8 GW of thermal power capacity has been allotted during the first 100 days of the new National Democratic Alliance (NDA), according to Pankaj Agarwal, secretary, Union Ministry of Power.
Of the additional 80 GW planned for fiscal year 2032, another 28.4 GW are under construction, he said. “28,400 MW are already under construction. In these 100 days, contracts have been awarded for another 12,800 MW, which will go into construction very quickly,” he added.
The renewed focus on adding coal-fired power generation capacity comes amid record energy demand over the past three years and because thermal power provides baseload power and maintains stability on the grid.
Green energy is not yet up to par
Addressing the media on the government’s performance in its first 100 days, Union Minister for Power, Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar said there is a need to keep installing new thermal capacities as the supply of green energy is not in line with the demand.
“Until the supply of renewable energy matches demand, it seems necessary to increase the capacity of thermal power plants in the country and gradually reduce their installation. But until 2030-35, we need to take measures.” [thermal projects] “Go ahead,” said the Minister of Energy.
He also said that the National Electricity Plan 2023-32 will be released in the next 15 days. Pointing out that the peak demand is expected to reach 425 GW by 2030 and 458 GW by 2032, he said that as per the new plan, the transmission network will have to be expanded to 6.48 lakh circuit kilometres (ckm) by 2032 from 4.85 lakh ckm in 2024.
He said the government would also increase the transformer capacity to 2342 gigavolt-amperes (GVA) from 1251 GVA, adding that overall capital expenditure for expansion and modernization would be ₹9.15 billion.
The minister also said that 50 GW capacity for the Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS) has been approved in the last 100 days. The 335 GW transmission network is expected to evacuate 280 GW of variable renewable energy to the ISTS by 2030.
Of these, 42 GW have been completed, 85 GW are under construction and 75 GW are up for tender, the minister said, adding that the remaining 82 GW will be approved in due course. The transmission schemes correspond to 50.9 GW of capacity with an estimated cost of ₹Rs 60,676 crore have been approved during the first 100 days, he added.
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