India needs 161 GW power to sustain growth: Study

New Delhi: India's growth story may get upset if urgent steps are not initiated to tackle and overcome the electricity demand deficit of 13 per cent and energy shortage of six per cent, an industry lobby study said.

The study was conducted jointly by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and credit rating company Crisil on 'Indian Power Sector: Holistic Capacity Building', reports IANS.

"As per the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) estimates, India would require an addition of at least 161 Giga Watt (GW) of generation capacity during the 11th and 12th plan periods," it said.

According to the study, the central government has estimated fund requirement of Rs 410,000 crore (US $95.5 billion) for meeting new generation targets.

“Distribution, the most neglected area in the power sector is expected to witness very high investments aided by government grants and soft loans. The expected investment in distribution for the 11th plan as per CEA is approximately Rs 287,000 crore," it added.

The investments in distribution are primarily expected to come from the government sector.

These requirements do not include the generation additions of around 40 GW, which slipped during the 10th plan.

"These slippages were largely due to a lack of an adequate policy and regulatory framework, which have been overcome to a large extent by the enactment of Electricity Act 2003 and rules and regulations under the act," the study said.

It further said that fuel will be a critical source for meeting the generation targets and will require a holistic effort for efficient coal mining as well as exploring other sources of generation including gas based generation, hydro and renewable energy sources.

The study also noted that during the 11th and 12 plan periods electricity sector will require about two million trained manpower, thereby raising the number of industrial training institutes (ITIs), other specialised training institutes and training programmes on IT enabled applications required.