The installed electricity generation capacity in the country was around 364,960 MW on October 31, which is sufficient to meet the electricity demand in the country. The gap between demand and supply of power up to October during the current fiscal in terms of energy and peak is less than 1 per cent, stated Raj Kumar Singh, Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy.

This gap was primarily on account of factors such as constraints in sub-transmission and distribution network and financial constraints of state power utilities to purchase power than the inadequacy of power. Furthermore, to meet any shortfall in their power requirement, distribution companies could purchase power from power exchanges daily.

The government was providing the necessary support to states and union territories to augment and strengthen the intra-state transmission and distribution network through various schemes including Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS). The coal supply had also improved as the coal stocks with power plants as on November 11 stood at 23.1 Million Tonnes (MT) for the 14 days as against 12.1 MT for seven days during the corresponding period in the previous fiscal.

This minister provided this information in a written response to an unstarred question in Lok Sabha on Thursday.