For the 12th Plan Period (2012-17), the government may fix power capacity addition target at around 100,000 MW. This is the Power Ministry's proposal to the Planning Commission.

Mr BK Chaturvedi at the India Energy Congress 2012 told reporters that “The final call would be taken by the National Development Council. It may be between 90,000 MW and 100,000 MW.”

In his address, the Power Minister, Mr Sushilkumar Shinde called for strengthening research and development in power generation, transmission and distribution sectors.

He said while progress in the sector had been made during the 11th Plan, a lot still needed to be done.

The Minister said that during the 11th Plan period, the country has added about two and a half times the capacity that was added during the 10th Plan period. He said that 80,000 MW capacity was under construction for the 12th Plan.

Mr Shinde also emphasized the need of energy conservation through efficiency improvement. He said that through various initiatives such as star labeling of products, the achievement in the avoided generation capacity during the 11th Plan will be over 10,000 MW.

He asked the delegates to look into the issues such as prices of fuels and the local problems.

(Sourced from BL)