OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings says in a new report that the utilisation rate of India's thermal power generation capacity continued to decline in the first half of the financial year ending March 2016 (1HFY16).

India's overall coal-fired plant load factor fell 3.2pp to 60%, and gas-fired utilisation remained flat at about 22% in 1HFY16, a report from the Central Electricity Authority showed.

The low utilisation is primarily due to the inability of financially stressed power distribution companies to purchase electricity, with fuel scarcity contributing to low utilisation among gas-fired plants. This underscores the importance of successfully addressing the financial health of the distribution companies.