Electricity Market:The growing demand-supply gap in the electricity market, triggered by a slowdown in the pace of new capacity additions by coal-fired power plants, has increased pressure on the country’s grid managers at a time when there is a lack of effective storage options to balance the variability of growing renewable energy capacities. With rising temperatures driving power demand, failure to add baseload capacity is further exacerbating the problems posed by the variability of renewable energy.
Data from Niti Aayog’s energy dashboard shows that India’s coal-based thermal capacity grew from 205 GW in FY20 to 218 GW in FY24, a 6 per cent increase. At the same time, generation by coal-based thermal power plants grew 34 per cent from 960 billion units (BU) to 1,290 billion units (BU) and the average plant load factor (PLF), or capacity utilisation, increased from 53 per cent to 68 per cent. In April, the average PLF of coal-based thermal power plants was 76 per cent and is likely to be higher in May, as peak demand reached 250 GW on May 30, against an estimated peak demand of 235 GW for the month of May.
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2024-06-02 02:59:47