As India gears up for general elections, Political parties will find it hard to explain to their voters a phenomenon that is set to unfold. There seems to be no solution to the acute shortage of fuels that threatens to cripple power generation in the country. India has an installed capacity of slightly over 145 gigawatt (GW). Of this, over half, or 77 GW, is in thermal coal projects and another 159 GW in gas/liquid fuel power projects. While nuclear power capacity adds up to 41 GW, the balance is in the form of hydro and other renewable energy projects. At one level, the government promises to add over 78 GW of fresh capacity during the current Eleventh Plan, but even the existing assets are being underutilised due to fuel shortage. The nuclear fuel shortage has forced the Nuclear Power Corporation to slash production to half of plant capacity. And a coal and gas shortage threatens to aggravate this by delivering substantially less than the 145 GW installed capacity. According to data from the Central Electricity Authority, peak demand has increased from 88 GW in 2004-05 to 106.9 GW during April-August 2008. During the same period, the peak deficit has increased from (-)11.7 per cent to (-)14.6 per cent. BW had earlier highlighted (see