India has recorded a peak-time power deficit of 2 per cent in the first quarter ended June of the current financial year, the lowest level of electricity shortage witnessed in the past five years.
The country suffered from a shortfall of 3,000 Megawatt in power availability in the June quarter, according to the latest data sourced from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the power ministry’s planning wing.
Power minister Piyush Goyal, while replying to a question asked in the upper house Parliament last week, had pegged the gap between demand and supply of electricity for the quarter at 0.9 per cent. The five year-low power deficit comes on the back of ten per cent increase in the total installed coal-based power generation capacity and a six percent increase in gas-based plants.
The country’s overall power capacity rose nine percent during the three month period. The CEA data shows the coal consumed in power generation in the quarter increased by three per cent as compared to the consumption in the same period last year.
By Baishakhi Dutta
