India To Miss 07/08 Power...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[India may add 10 per cent less power capacity than a targeted 12,039 mega watt (MW) in the 2007/08 fiscal year that ends on March 31, the finance ministry said in its annual economic survey on Thursday. India plans to add 78,577 MW of capacity in the five years ending March 2012, with twin goals of providing access to power for its billion-plus population and raising per capita availability to 1,000 units a year from 631 units. &quot;It is expected that the total capacity addition during the current financial year would be 10,821.8 MW,&quot; the survey for 2007/08 said. India's installed capacity was 141,080 MW at the end of January. The survey said the power sector in the world's second-fastest-growing major economy was expected to grow at 9.5 percent annually up to March 2012. A target of 7.2 percent growth in 2007/08 in electricity generation to 710 billion kilowatt hours looked unlikely to be met. For April to December, the growth rate was 6.6 percent, down from a year-earlier rate of 7.5 percent, the survey said. Fuel shortages remained a constraint for the sector, the survey said. Around 10.5 percent or 14,692 MW of India's installed power generation capacity was based on gas or liquid fuel, excluding diesel. During April-November, the generation loss due to gas supply shortages was 21.79 billion units. The power sector needed 65.69 million standard cubic metres of gas per day (mmscmd) but only received 36.31 mmscmd, it said. In 2006-07, the generation loss due to low gas supplies was 26.33 billion units. &quot;The supply of gas to power stations that use gas as the primary fuel remains inadequate ... leading to loss in generation,&quot; it said. About 62 percent of power generation comes from coal-fired power stations, and the sector consumes around 78 percent of India's coal production. As well, the sector imported 7.3 million tonnes of coal during April to December. (Reuters)