The government on Wednesday said that the power generation capacity addition in the XI five-year plan, ending 2012, would be about 74,000 MW, close to the original target of 78,577 MW.
"With best efforts, we would add about 12,000-13,000 MW power generation capacity over the likely addition of 62,000 MW in the current five-year plan. This would be at 74,000 MW near to the original target of electricity generation capacity of 78,577 MW," Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters at a FICCI conference on energy efficiency.
Earlier in its mid-term review, the Planning Commission had reduced power generation capacity addition target by over 20 per cent to 62,374 MW for the current plan period from the original 78,577 MW. In the mid term appraisal report, the Plan panel had stated: "It is anticipated that additional power generation capacity of 45,234MW can be commissioned during the remaining period of the XIth Plan, noting that 19,207 MW capacity was added till December 31, 2009."
Shinde further said, "I purposely took the power generation capacity addition target of 78,577 in XIth Plan considering Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's announcement of 'power to all' by March 2012."
"I could have taken 50,000 MW as the target. But we took the challenge and added over 22,000 MW as on today during the first three years of the current five-year plan. I have two years in hand," he said.
During the 10th Plan, 21,080 MW was added against the target of 41,000 MW. Addressing the conference, the minister also said, "The CDM executive board has approved our 'Bachat Lamp Yojana' under which incandescent bulbs are replaced by energy efficient CFLs at a cost of Rs 15 only."
The CDM is an international organisation for approval of carbon credit projects under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The replacement of all incandescent bulbs in the country is expected to result in saving of 6,000 MW power.
