By Manish Gupta
The government expects to add 25-30 GW of renewable energy capacity, which is around 65% of India’s total power generation capacity addition this fiscal.
A senior government official said the country is likely to see its power generation capacity going up by 40-45 GW in FY24, which is more than double the 18 GW achieved last fiscal. This will be a significant addition as it will expand the current capacity, which is 412 GW, by around 10%.
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In conventional energy, the capacity addition will come mostly in coal-based power plants at around 10-12 GW and hydro will see capacity addition of 2-2.5 GW, the official said. As of now, 70-75 GW of renewable power plants are under construction.
The government has no plan to add any more gas-based power plants. Considering the availability of gas for the plants that are already set up, there is no possibility of new gas-based power plant coming up in near future, the official said.
As for the coal availability for the thermal power plants, he said the position is better than the previous year and that the power ministry is closely coordinating with the ministries of railways and coal to ensure sufficient supply of coal to power plants.
The government had instructed import of coal for blending to fill gaps in coal availability. Last fiscal, the coal import was 237 million tonne, which is 17% higher than in FY22. However, the official said that the government has not set a target for coal import this fiscal. The import of coal is need based, he added.
The total coal requirement for the power plants this fiscal is likely to be around 800 million tonne, of which more than 600 million tonne is expected from Coal India Ltd (CIL).
Power companies with captive coal mines are also likely to increase their production from about 100 million tonne in FY23 to about 140 million tonne in current fiscal, the official said.
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However, the official said that there is a transition happening in the power sector from fossil fuel to renewables. The share of coal-based power plants, which currently is 74%, will decline to 54-55% by 2030, he said.
The government has decided to invite bids for 50 GW of renewable energy capacity annually for the next five years beginning current financial year 2023-24 till financial year 2027-28. These annual bids of ISTS (Inter-State Transmission) connected renewable energy capacity will also include setting up of wind power capacity of at least 10 GW per annum, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said in a statement early this month.
The plan is in accordance with Prime Minister’s announcement at COP26, of achieving 500 GW of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel (renewable energy + nuclear) sources by 2030. The Ministry of Power is already working on upgrading and adding the transmission system capacity for evacuating 500 GW of electricity from non-fossil fuel.
