NEW DELHI: Even as the country has faced an acute power shortage in the peak of summer, the power ministry on Thursday claimed that there is adequate installed power capacity in the country to meet the demand.
Power minister RK Singh, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, said the country is self-reliant in meeting its demand of electricity, adding that the installed generation capacity of the county is 403.76 GigaWatt (GW), which is sufficient to meet the peak power demand.
The peak power demand of the country is around 215.89 GW, this year which occurred in April, said the minister. As per the load generation balance report 2022-23, published by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the country’s energy requirement is assessed to be at 1,505,198 million units (MU) as against the energy availability of 15,49,597 MU for 2022-23.
Contrary to the ministry’s claim, many states like Telangana, Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh reported long power cuts. Power plants faced immense coal shortages and to meet demand the government had asked Coal India to import coal on behalf of gencos.