Power ministry says energy shortage comes down

New Delhi: The government today said that the energy shortage has came down to 0.7 per cent in 2016-17. "Energy Shortage reduced from 4.2 per cent in 2013-14 to 0.7 per cent in 2016-17," the power ministry said in a statement.

The energy shortage in 2014 was 42,428 MU (million units) (4.2 per cent), which came down to 7,595 MU in FY'17 (0.7 per cent), it said. The statement is on the three years achievements of the government.

The ministry further said that "peak energy shortage in 2014 was 6,103 mw (4.5 per cent) which came down to 2,608 mw (1.6 per cent) in 2017." The ministry further said that India has turned around from a net importer of electricity to net exporter by exporting around 6,444 MU to Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar in 2016-17.

The total power capacity increased by nearly a third from 243 GW in March 2014 to 320 GW in March 2017. Total installed capacity increased by 33.3 per cent to 3,26,849MW till 2016-17, it said.

There has been 40 per cent (more than one third) increase  in transmission capacity from 5,30,546 MVA in March 2014 to 7,40,765 MVA in March 17, the ministry said. A total of 26 states and one union territory has joined UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana) which seeks to turn around discoms.

"Almost 85 per cent UDAY bonds have already been issued (Rs 2.32 lakh crore out of total Rs 2.72 lakh crore) leading to less rate of interest for DISCOMs. This has led to savings of nearly Rs 12,000 crore," it said.