CEA working on 13th electricity plan

Central Electricity Authority (CEA) is working on the 13th National Electricity Plan and the draft is expected in a month.

"We are working on 13th national electricity plan for five years and perspective plan for the next five years," CEA chairman S D Dubey said.

The plan will try to gauge power demand in the country and highlight policy enablers to achieve the same. "Earlier, the plan used to demand that projections be made state-wise. But this time, we are undertaking demand at discom level," Dubey said.

CEA will map some 78 distribution companies of the country in the process. The 12th plan (2012-17) had estimated a capacity addition of about 76,000 MW to meet the demand projections of the country, of which 63,000 mw would be coal based.

Inter-regional transmission capacity of 37,800 MW was projected during the period. With rise in renewables, mainly in solar generation, and with impetus from government, an installed capacity of 100GW of solar was expected by one to two years from 19,000 MW in 2015-16. In the wake of high renewable generations in the country, new standards in power sector are also being worked out by the authority.

"We are working on standards on construction, operation and maintenance of power equipment for renewable electricity systems for grid stability," Dubey said.

Stakeholders' feedback is received and after modifications new standards will be revealed shortly.