Peak power deficit to be lower than 12% this fiscal: CEA
Press Trust of India / New Delhi August 24, 2010, 20:55 IST

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA), responsible for monitoring power projects, today said the power deficit during peak hours would substantially come down from the present level of 12 per cent by fiscal-end.

"The peak power deficit would be much less than the current level of over 12 per cent by the end of this financial year as the availability of the generation capacity would go up," CEA Chairman Gurdial Singh told reporters on the sidelines of an ICC Energy Summit here.

According to the latest CEA data, the peak power deficit in the country was 12.1 per cent till July 10 this fiscal.

About the lower plant load factor (power generation against capacity) of thermal plants during the rainy season, Singh said, "Barring a few plants, the overall coal availability for the sector has been good and lowering in peak deficit in the coming days could be expected."

The country has plans to import about 45 million tonnes of coal for the power sector in 2010-11, he said, adding that the import quantity, owing to its its high calorific value, is equivalent to 68 million tonnes of domestic dry fuel. India has already imported nine million tonnes of dry fuel, he further said.

To avoid delay in coal arrival at plants, power companies are placing import orders for the dry fuel in time this year, he said.

He informed that efforts are being made that all entities (public sector) place orders for 60 per cent of their planned imports for the current fiscal in first six months to avoid any delay in delivery.
India to levy 10% import tax on power gear
Reuters / New Delhi August 12, 2010, 12:07 IST

Power sectorIndia will impose a 10 per cent import tax on power equipment for big projects within weeks to help level the playing field between domestic and foreign firms jostling in what may soon be the world's biggest market.

The tax would reverse a policy of zero import duty on equipment for mega projects introduced to meet India's urgent capacity shortages, said Arun Maira, a member of the government's Planning Commission who led a committee on equipment imports.

Without enough local suppliers, India turned to China to help bridge a peak power shortage of 12 per cent seen as an obstacle to matching its Asian neighbour's double digit economic growth.

The zero duty on imports for equipment to build so-called Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPPs), which are larger and use more fuel efficient technologies, created a "perverse situation" that helped foreign firms at the expense of Indian ones, Maira told Reuters in an interview late on Wednesday.

"It will happen very shortly, in the next few weeks," he said, when asked when the duty would be imposed, adding he had received confirmation of the decision on Wednesday.

"It should be normalised as quickly as possible because we want a level playing field. The playing field got distorted ... We had done a disfavour to our domestic producers."