With just about 54,000 MW capacity being added in the 11th Plan so far, the power sector is set to miss the revised capacity addition target of 62,000 MW in the current Plan period (2007-12). “We have so far added 53,922 MW capacity in the 11th Plan period as on March 29,” power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters in New Delhi on Thursday. The capacity addition target for the 11th Plan Period ending March 31 was revised downward to 62,000 MW from the earlier target of 78,500 MW.

New Delhi: State governments with coal reserves played a key role in the distribution of acreages without bidding and, as the Comptroller and Auditor General’s draft report on allocation of 155 blo

Lucknow Uttar Pradesh’s bleeding power sector can breathe a sigh of relief from the never-ending saga of resource crunch, pressure from financial institutions and day-to-day exercise of managing funds for virtually everything, thanks to the Centre’s approval in principle for a R15,000-crore financial restructuring plan spanned over a period of 10 years by a consortium of 21 banks, which would provide the loan amount over the next three years.

New Delhi All public-private partnership (PPP) projects in the power transmission sector, including intra-state transmission networks, will now qualify for government grants under the viability-gap funding (VGF) scheme, making them attractive to private sector investors.

The VGF scheme, finalised by the finance ministry few years back to promote investment in the infrastructure sector, involves central assistance in the form of grant for capital expenditure up to 20% of the project cost, while the state government — being one of the owners — could also provide a matching grant with a ceiling of another 20% of the project cost.

The government expressed willingness to halt all power projects coming up in the Ganga’s Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river basi-ns as part of its concessions to 80-year-old Prof. G.D. Agarwal (Swami Gyansw-aroop Anand) to persuade him to break his prolonged fast at the AIIMS here on Friday.

These include the 330MW Srinagar hydroelectric po-wer project, Singoli-Bhat-wari and Phata-Byung on the Mandakini, Khotibhal IA on the Bhagirathi, Vish-nugad-Pipalkoti and Alakn-anda-Badrinath on the Ala-knanda and Devsari on the Pindar.

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has said no new gas-based power plants will be set up in the country till 2015-16, as the natural gas output is expected to fall considerably.

The CEA in a letter to states indicated that as per Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas reports India's natural gas production is likely to fall by 35 per cent to 27.64 million metric standard cubic metre per day (mmscmd) in the next fiscal and may further dip by another 12 per cent to 24.22 mmscmd in 2013-14.

As many as 18 power plants in the country are faced with critical level of coal shortage, Minister of State for Power K C Venugopal informed the Rajya Sabha today.

Of the 89 thermal power projects being monitored, 34 had fuel (coal) stock less than seven days and 25 of these had less than four days stock, he said during Question Hour. Stating the situation has improved subsequently, he said there are "only 18 super critical" power plants now.

New Delhi Reliance Power has made it clear that it will not go ahead with the implementation of its R17,500-crore Krishnapatnam ultra mega power project (UMPP) in Andhra Pradesh unless contracted buyers agree on tariff revision to accommodate the increase in fuel cost from the recent change in the Indonesian coal pricing law.

Sources said that the private developer has invoked the ‘force majeure’ clause of the power purchase agreement (PPA) and served notice on power procurers seeking negotiations for tariff revision.

Government has asked power producers to refrain from setting up new gas-based plants as dwindling fuel supply is threatening viability of 37,000-MW of existing and upcoming projects.

Across the power sector, alarm bells are ringing, threatening to short-circuit the already unravelling growth story.