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India's power consumption grew marginally by nearly 2 per cent year-on-year to 130.35 billion units (BU) in August 2022, according to the power ministry data. Power consumption in August last year was recorded at 127.88 BU, higher than 109.21 BU in the same month of 2020. However, the peak power demand met, which is the highest supply in a day, in August 2022 dipped to 194.94 gigawatt (GW). The peak power supply stood at 196.27 GW in August 2021 and 167.52 GW in August 2020. Power consumption and demand were affected in August 2020 due to the impact of lockdown restrictions that were imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus. The peak power demand met was 177.52GW in August 2019 (pre-pandemic period). Similarly, power consumption in August 2019 was 111.52 BU. According to experts, power consumption and demand remained subdued in August due to rains across the country under an active monsoon. Power consumption as well as demand would grow steadily in coming months in view of norm
The government measures to ease power supply constraints through higher coal imports are likely to increase cost of supply for discoms by 4.5-5.0 per cent in 2022-23, Icra said on Tuesday. On May 5, Ministry of Power (MoP) issued a directive under Section 11 of the Electricity Act, stating that all imported coal-based power plants shall operate and generate power at their full capacity to meet the growing demand, Icra stated. As per this directive, all states and power generating companies (gencos) based on domestic coal will have to import at least 10 per cent of their fuel requirement for blending with domestic coal and meet the growing demand for electricity. This directive by the ministry is valid till October 31, 2022. As the present power purchase agreements (PPAs) do not provide for a pass-through of the fuel cost for these projects, the tariff for supply from these plants under PPAs shall be worked out by a committee with representatives from the MoP, Central Electricity ..
Ministry of Power on Friday issued guidelines for operationalising optimum utilisation of generating stations as per the requirement in the electricity grid. A ministry directive issued on Friday provided guidelines in this regard. According to the order of the ministry, it has been brought to the notice of the government that some power plants are not generating to their full capacity at any given time and the unutilised capacity remains idle as they are tied up under power purchase agreements. Whereas in the public interest, such power needs to be despatched (supplied) where there is a requirement in the grid by the other users or consumers, it stated. According to the Tariff Policy, 2016, power stations are required to be available and ready to dispatch supply at all times. For optimum utilisation of un-requisitioned generation capacity of any generating stations regulated under Section 62 as well as those having PPA (power purchase agreement) under Section 63 of the Electrici