India plans to build 17 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants in the next 16 months, the fastest pace in years, to prevent outages due to record growth in electricity demand, Reuters reports.
The expansion comes ahead of this week’s UN COP28 climate summit. France and the US are expected to limit funding for coal-fired plants, which India that relies on coal for 73% of its electricity generation, plans to oppose.
India has added an average of 5 gigawatts of coal-fired power plant capacity every year for the past five years, while ramping up renewable energy. However, unless the number of coal-fired power plants is increased, the country will not be able to meet electricity demand, two government officials said on condition of anonymity.
India plans to build nearly 3 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants in the next four months and 14 gigawatts in the next fiscal year starting 1 April 2025, the highest in eight years, internal government documents said.
To finalise the projects New Delhi has started reviewing 38 coal-fired power plants whose construction had been delayed for years in a bid to resolve equipment problems and land acquisition delays, two officials said.
At a meeting on 21 November, the government told power producers that 28 of these projects would be commissioned in the next 18 months. These projects include a 660-megawatt unit of the state-run NTPC Power Company (NTPC.NS) in eastern Bihar state, which has been delayed for 13 years, and two projects in neighbouring Jharkhand state, which have been frozen for more than five years.
At the meeting, Power Minister R.K. Singh urged private companies to set up new coal-fired power generation capacity to meet night-time demand and assured them of financial assistance. He also told public and private power producers that India “will have to increase coal-fired thermal capacity” to meet demands growing at an unprecedented rate, said two officials who also attended the meeting.
Industry officials said it was the first time such a call had been made in a decade, as most private investment in coal power stopped around 2012, partly because of India’s push for green energy.
While the coal capacity expansion is aimed at meeting the expected 10 per cent growth in demand during peak hours in fiscal year 2024-25, India will still meet the national commitment to get half of its fuel capacity from non-fossil fuels by 2030, the two officials said.
After commissioning 22 gigawatts of capacity in fiscal year 2015/16, India scaled back plans to expand coal-fired power plants as the government opted for alternative energy sources. India now wants to have enough coal-fired power plants to meet electricity demand of 384 gigawatts by fiscal 2031/32, up 5 per cent from the previous projection of 366 gigawatts, government documents show.
