Overview
The rate of growth of generation capacities in public sector is in line with the additions to the installed capacity. During the last 50 years the thermal generation registered a spectacular growth. However, the growth in hydro generation was very poor. Also on the nuclear front, 10 Nuclear power plants accounted for only around 2% of total utility generation.Owing to the decline in hydro development and prevailing peak power deficits, coal-fired thermal power units are often used for meeting peak loads. Poor performance of India's existing generating units has been a principal cause of worry. The average plant load factor (PLF) of thermal power stations in India is less than 60%, but varies considerably across the regions. In contrast, hydro power stations have far better track record due to the fact that their performance relies largely on water flow.The sector wise and region wise generating capacities are given in the table 1 below:

Generation Sector

Table 1

Sector and Region wise Generating Capacities

	Sector	Total	Hydro	Thermal				Wind	Nuclear
				Coal	Gas	Diesel	Total
NR	State	17897	6400	10574	901	14	11490	6.4	0.00
	Private	558	386	0	0	0	0	172.1	0.00
	Central	13642	3810	6340	2312	0	8652		1180
	Sub Total	30979	10596	16914	3213	14	20142	178	1180
WR	State	19611	4180	14041	1346	17	15404	26	0.0
	Private	5740	447	2290	2398	0.2	4688	606	0.0
	Central	7387	875	4460	1292	0.0	5752	0.0	760
	Sub Total	32739	5502	20791	5036	17.2	25844	632	760
SR	State	18743	10394	7392	562	362	8317	31	0.0
	Private	4508	43	510	1738	576	2824	1640	0.0
	Central	7120	0.0	5990	350	0.0	6340	0.0	780
	Sub Total	30371	10437	13892	2650	938	17482	1671	780
ER	State	7914	2255	5538	100	17	5655	3.7	0.0
	Private	1443	0.0	1441	0.0	0.0	1441	1.5	0.0
	Central	8551	204	8257	90	0.0	8347	0.0	0.0
	Sub Total	17909	2459	15237	190	17	15444	5.2	0.0
NER	State	1097	274	330	351	142	823	0.3	0.0
	Private	24	0.0	0.0	24	0.0	24	0.0	0.0
	Central	1235	860	0.0	375	0.0	375	0.0	0.0
	Sub Total	2357	1134	330	750	142	1223	0.3	0.0
Island	State	49	5	0.0	0.0	44.02	44	0.0	0.0
	Private	20	0.0	0.0	0.0	20	20	0.0	0.0
	Central	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	Sub Total	69	5	0.0	0.0	64	64	0.0	0.0
India	State	65314	23510	37877	3260	598	41736	68	0.0
	Private	12294	876	4241	4160	597	8998	2419	0.0
	Central	37935	5749	25047	4419	0.0	29466	0.0	2720
	Sub Total	115544	30135	67165	11839	1195	80201	2488	2720

During the 9th Five Year Plan (1997-2002), the Indian Government had fixed the target of 40245.2MW for capacity addition, comprising 29545.5MW of thermal, 9819.7MW of hydro and 880MW of nuclear. Unfortunately, due to various constraints, the Government itself could add only about 19,000MW as compared to the planned addition. A capacity addition of 41110 MW has been targeted for the 10th five-year plan; details are given in Table 2 below.

Table 2 - Capacity Addition Programme for 10th Five Year Plan

	Hydro	Thermal	Nuclear	Cumulative Capacity
Central Sector	8742	12790	1300	22832
State Sector	4481	6676	0	11157
Private Sector	1170	5941	0	7121
Overall	14393	25407	1300	41110

Source: Annual Repport 2002-03 , Ministry Of power

Capacity Addition Achieved during First Three Years of 10th Plan

Year	Capacity Addition (MW)
	Centre	State	Total
2002-03	1210.0	1440.30	2650.30
2003-04	3035.0	916.62	3951.62
2004-05 (up to Feb'05)	2585.0	1058.92	3643.92

Source Annual Report-Ministry of Power, Govt. of India Ministry of Power is accelerating the generation growth through various policy measures. In the remaining period of two years of 10th Plan and five years of 11th Plan, government is planning for Capacity addition of around 70,000MW.

The overall achievements in the power sector in last fifty years and the power requirement forecast for 10th and 11th Plan are given in Table 3 & 4.

Table 3 - Growth of Installed Generating Capacity

By Year Ending	Installed Generating Capacity (MW)
	Centre	Nuclear	Thermal
March-1950	559	-	1,152
March-1960	1,530	-	2,343
March-1970	6,134	420	7,592
March-1975	7,529	640	10,153
March-1980	11,384	640	16,857
March-1990	18,308	1,565	43,764
March-1995	20,833	2,005	58,113
March-1998	21,891	2,225	64,150.78
March-2000	23,627	1,840	69,474.76
March-2001	25,141.78	2,860	73,628.30
March-2002	26,261	2,720	75,936.30
March-2003	26,910	2,720	78,342.57
March-2004	29,500	2,720	79,838.19
March-2001	30,335	2,860	83,266

Source: Annual Report, 2004-05 Ministry of Power

Table 4 - All India Power requirement Forecast for 10th, 11th Plan

Year	Energy Requirement MKWh	Peak load MW
2006-07	7,81,863	1,30,944
2011-12	10,58,440	1,76,647

Source: 15th Electric Power Survey of India

Funding
Power Sector, hitherto, had been funded mainly through budgetary support and external borrowings. But given the budgetary support limitations, due to growing demand from other sectors, particularly social sector and the severe borrowing constraints, the Government is expecting a larger role in the power sector from private enterprises. Necessary legal provisions have been in place and policy changes are being implemented to encourage participation from private sector. Private sector is permitted to set up coal, gas or liquid based thermal projects, hydel projects and wind or solar projects of any size. Foreign equity participation up to 100% in the power sector under the automatic route is also permitted.

Foreign Investors can enter into a joint venture with an Indian partner for financial and/or technical collaboration and also for setting up of renewable energy based power generation projects. The liberalized foreign investment approval regime is aimed at facilitating foreign investment and transfer of technology through joint ventures.