Indian thermal plants' generation falls short by 762 MU in October

Generation from thermal power stations in all regions in India fell short of the October target.

The thermal plants have a shortfall of 762 MU, including 848 MU in shortfalls from coal based plants and 113 MU in shortfalls from gas based plants. The growth in thermal generation during the period April-October 2011 amounted to 5.06%, a rate relatively more constrained compared with that over the same period last year, owing to major factors such as coal shortages, forced outages and delay in stabilization of some new thermal units.

Although the loss of generation reported due to delay in stabilization of thermal units was highest at 7.65 billion units (BU), it was offset by some of the newly commissioned units which achieved higher generation with respect to targets set. At a cumulative loss of 3.62 BU, it came a close second to the shortfall observed due to shortage of coal, which was pegged at 5.328 BU.

Furthermore, the plant load factor (PLF) of gas based plants during the period was restricted to merely 65.30% compared with a PLF of 70.33% during the same period last year on account of lower schedules from the beneficiaries and shut down of operation of thermal units after commissioning of new thermal units of higher capacity.