India to miss 12th plan power addition target

India will miss its power generation capacity addition target for the five-year plan period through March 2012 because some hydro-electric projects have been affected by adverse weather and topography, power secretary P Uma Shankar told reporters today.

The delay in adding more capacity could affect India's attempts to provide millions of rural households with electricity and fight peak hour shortages, which were at 12 per cent in the year ended 31 March.

The government initially planned to add 78.7 gigawatts of total power generation capacity in the current five-year plan, then later revised the target to 62.37 gw. But this could still be a struggle, with only 28.57 gw commissioned by October 2010, according to government data.

"Efforts are on to achieve 62,000 mw, but three to four [hydro-electric] projects have been affected due to issues like natural geographical disturbances," Uma Shankar said. "So, 3,000-4,000 mw capacity addition has been affected."

At the end of October, India had a total installed power generation capacity of 167 gw, with hydro-electric accounting for 22 per cent.

India intends to exploit hydro-electric resources in its north and northeast to help cut its dependence on coal, but progress has been hampered by tough terrain in the regions, floods and protests by environmentalists.