Power shortage lowest ever level of 2.1% in FY16: Piyush Goyal

Power shortage was at 2.1% -- the lowest level in a single year -- in last financial year, Parliament was informed on Thursday.

"During 2015-16, the energy shortage was 2.1%, which is the lowest ever in a single year," Power Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

The minister further stated that India is importing power only from Bhutan at present. The imported power is mainly Bhutan's surplus power from hydro stations commissioned in Bhutan with the assistance from the Government of India. During 2015-16, energy imported from Bhutan was about 5 billion units (BU), the minister added.

During 2014-15, electricity shortage, when total demand outstrip supply during peak hours, was 3.6% whereas it was slightly higher at 4.2% in 2013-14 and 8.7% in 2012-13.

In another reply, the minister said that during the 12th Plan period, a target of 88,537 MW excluding 30,000 MW of Renewal Energy source, was fixed for capacity addition. Against this, cumulative capacity addition of 84,990.7 MW has been achieved as on March 31, 2016.

In a separate reply to the house, the minister said that at present, there is no shortage of coal in the country. None of the coal-based power generation plants across the country has reported any loss of generation due to shortage of coal during 2015-16.

The minister further stated that at present, as on April 21, 2016, coal stock at power plants has been reported to be more than 37 Million Tonne (MT) by power utilities which is sufficient for operation of power plants for about 25 days.

However, he said that at present, there is some deficit in availability of domestic gas."Due to government initiative, the scheme of utilisation of RLNG (Regassified Liquefied Natural Gas) helped in improving the generation from gas based power stations. During 2015-16, the growth of generation from gas based power station was 14.6% over the same period last year," he said.

Enhanced availability of domestic coal has offset shortage of gas and has resulted in growth in overall thermal generation from coal & gas based power plants to 7.4% during the year 2015-16 as well as reduction of 10.6 MT import of coal by power sector, he added.