With a little bit of jugglery, the government will be able to meet its Eleventh Plan target of adding 78,000 Mw capacity -- more than the total capacity addition achieved in the last three Plans -- despite slippages in some of the projects.

"We are on track to add 78,000 Mw," Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told Business Standard. This will be done by taking into account the 5,000 Mw capacity that is being created as "captive" capacity.

 "According to the latest data from the power ministry, 56,000 Mw capacity is already under construction, and orders for 12,250 Mw would be placed by March 2008. In addition, there are the "best effort" projects of about 5,000 Mw capacity which can be commissioned by 2012, the terminal year of the Plan. Add the 5,000 Mw of captive capacity and the 78,000 Mw milestone is easily crossed.

Incidentally, projects of a combined capacity of about 5,000 Mw have already been commissioned this year. "What was not achieved in the last 15 years would be achieved in this Plan," claimed the power minister.

Despite the aggressive talk, power capacity addition has been slipping behind targets. Just a third of the targeted capacity of about 10,000 Mw was added in the April-October period. This led to concerns about a repeat of the Tenth Plan performance, when against a target of 41,110 Mw, only 21,280 Mw of capacity was added. Even in the Ninth Plan, against a target of 40,245 Mw, only 19,015 Mw capacity was added.

So what has changed in this Plan? "The difference in this Plan versus last few Plans is the frantic activity which has started in the first year of the Plan itself," said the minister and added that "we are pushing all players very hard".

According to him, the amount of orders placed in the first year is an indicator of the actual target that would be achieved. For instance, orders of 21,000 Mw were placed in the first year of the Tenth Plan and the final capacity addition was about 21,000 Mw. In the Eleventh Plan, however, orders of 56,000 Mw have already been placed and more would be placed by March 2008, which would translate into actual capacity addition in the current Plan.

Also, the minister added, monitoring of the projects is being done almost on a weekly basis now. "Non-performers would be penalised," he warned. For instance, in case of captive power pants, if companies which have been allotted coal blocks or coal linkages are found to be just sitting on the blocks or linkages then their linkages/blocks would be withdrawn.

For the same reason, performance norms have been tightened for ultra mega power plants (UMPPs). "Those who get projects must be under pressure to perform and we will see to it that they perform according to the prevailing conditions," said Shinde.

The government has already awarded three UMPPs of 4,000 Mw each at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh (to Reliance [Get Quote] Power), Mundra in Gujarat (Tata Power [Get Quote]) and at Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh (Reliance Power).

"If a developer gets more projects, he should have higher responsibilities, as we don't want our projects to sit idle," added the minister.

More UMPPs are in the offing in Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu. The government is also trying to finalise locations for UMPPs in Karnataka and Maharashtra.