Power generated by private companies falls after a decade

Electricity generated by private power companies fell in Gujarat after a decade in the last financial year, according to Socio-Economic Review 2017-18, published by the state government.

Over the past few years, independent power producers like Adani, Tata, Torrent, and Essar have come to account for a lion's share of the electricity generated in the state, while power generated by Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited (GSECL) has seen a downward trend. From a little over 28 per cent in 2006-07, the share of independent private producers in power generation has more than doubled to almost 57 per cent.

Power generation by private producers has been going up in the state in every year, but it fell marginally in 2016-17, the first time since 2006-07.

According to the Socio-Economic Review, private players generated 60,530 Million Units (MUs) electricity in 2016-17, as against 61,433 MUs in the year before that.

The last time power generated by private companies had declined was in 2006-07, when it was 17,403 MUs, as compared to 18,260 MUs in the year before that.

Officials, however, said that it was temporary blip, and private players would continue to dominate.

"It was not a major fall. Looking at the long-term power purchase agreements they have signed, private producers will continue to dominate power generation going ahead," a senior official said.

Despite the decline, share of private players in the electricity pie remained steady at 57-58 per cent in both years, helped in part by GSECL's falling output.

The report shows that power generation by GSECL was 16,254 MUs in 2016-17, a fall of 3,000 MUs over 2015-16, when it stood at 19,225 MUs.

Central sector utilities generated the highest-ever 27,500 MUs of electricity in 2016-17, which was over 5,000 MUs more than the previous year.

Power generation by private players is expected to fall in the current year, too, as top producers Adani and Essar have stopped generating 2,000 MW and 1,000 MW power respectively for the past few weeks, citing higher cost of generation than realisation.

For the first seven months of the fiscal year 2017-18, i.e., until October 2017, 64,401 MUs of electricity were generated, of which private players accounted for 36,553 MUs, i.e., a 57 per cent share.

TREND TO CONTINUE

• Power generation by private players is expected to fall in the current year, too.
   
• Top producers Adani and Essar have stopped generating 2,000 MW and 1,000 MW power respectively for the past few weeks.
   
• These producers are citing higher cost of generation than realisation as the reason.