India added just 4.53 gigawatt (GW) of thermal capacity against its target of 15.4 GW in the financial year 2024-25, as per the data from the Central Electricity Authority’s latest thermal broad status report. Even as the government is targeting incremental thermal capacity owing to rising power demand, majority of thermal power projects are facing a delay in commissioning.
Of the targeted 22 units, the government could only commission six thermal units in the last fiscal. The commissioned projects included two units in the central sector with the remaining four units in the state sector.
During the year, Ghatampur TPP (660 MW), Khurja SCTPP (660 MW), Jawaharpur STPP (660 MW), Bhusawal TPS (660 MW), Panki TPS Extn (660 MW), and Yadadri TPS (800 MW) were the units commissioned. The commissioning of the remaining 16 units have been slipped to FY26, as per the report.
The government now expects to add 12.86 GW of thermal capacity in the financial year 2025-26.
As of March 2025, 46 thermal units across the central and the state sector with a cumulative capacity of 34.56 GW remained under construction. The pace of addition of thermal power capacity has slowed down in the past few years. In FY24 too, the country added 5.4 GW of thermal capacity against its target of 14.7 GW, as per the CEA data.
The key reasons for delay in commissioning of plants are the delay in equipment supply or land acquisition issues among others, as per analysts.
India has now and again affirmed its reliance on coal-based power and has advanced steps in this area – including the addition of 80 GW of new thermal capacity by 2031-32 as the country’s power demand increases.
“Typically any project execution for 80 GW, will need at least five years to get commissioned once the construction work has started. If you are to reach the 80 GW target by 2032, the construction needs to start by 2026-27,” Vikram V, vice-president & sector head, corporate ratings, Icra had earlier said. “For that to happen, all the approvals etc will have to start now.”
As per analysts, given the complexity of thermal plants there are a lot of things that need to fall into place – transmission lines, water pipelines, coal transportation lines, railway sidings among others for a thermal power plant to be commissioned.
The country witnessed its highest ever peak demand of 250 GW in the summer month of May 2024. The pace of increase in peak demand also witnessed a jump. While it took 6 years to add 50 GW peak demand from 150 GW in FY16 to around 200 GW in FY22, it took just 3 years thereafter to reach 250 GW, according to Anujesh Dwivedi, partner at Deloitte India.
The All-India peak demand is now expected to be 277 GW in FY26, an estimated increase of 27 GW from the previous year. During FY25 the country added 33 GW of additional power generation capacity, taking installed capacity to 475 GW. However, it is to be noted that the installed capacity addition has almost entirely come from renewable energy sources, which is variable and diurnal in nature, Dwivedi has earlier said.