Power gensets face rough patch

 India’s power generators continue to face low and declining capacity utilisation, mainly because financially stressed power-distribution companies are unable to purchase power, according to consultancy Fitch Ratings.

For the first half of the financial year ending March 2016, the overall coal-fired plant load factor (PLF) in India fell 3.2 percentage points (YoY) to 60 per cent, with that of central government-owned generation companies (gencos) falling one percentage point (pp) YoY to 72 per cent, state gencos’ falling five pp to 55 per cent, and private gencos’ down 2.3 pp to 57 per cent, the rating agency said.

The country’s gas-based PLF for the period was unchanged at a low level of around 22 per cent. The seven pp increase in private gencos’ PLF to 19 per cent was offset by the 5.3 pp drop in central gencos’ PLF to 23 per cent and a 2.9 pp fall for state gencos to 23 per cent. It is fuel unavailability that led to gas-based capacity stranded at grossly sub-optimal levels.