Performance of power stations during the 10th Plan would have been much better but for shortage of natural gas. Despite this problem, the overall achievement in actual power generation in last 4½ years of the 10th Plan has been about 99 per cent of the generation target. In fact, during the last three years, the actual generation was more than the target or almost equal to the target.
It may be noted that many of the gas-based projects could not be taken up for implementation due to uncertainty of gas availability and its price during the 10th Plan. Even the existing plants are not operating on full capacity due to non-availability of gas.
Presently, 13,581 mw capacity of combined cycle power projects exist, which are run on gas/liquid fuel. This includes 10,999 mw gas-based, which requires 53.52 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) at 90 per cent PLF. As against this requirement,
the actual supply/availability has been 36.62 mmscmd as on September 30, 2006, leaving a shortage of around 17 mmscmd.