Power Generation Availability Matters Beyond Installed Capacity
CEA recorded 58,359.8 MW unavailable across 312,333.8 MW of monitored conventional Power Generation capacity on 5 August 2026, representing about 18.7% of that monitored fleet. A separate comparison showed 24,957 MW of major and minor Forced Outage capacity across coal, lignite and nuclear units against 13,613.5 MW under planned maintenance. The two datasets use different fleet definitions and cannot be combined into one ratio. More importantly, the unavailable total includes existing and long-duration shutdowns rather than capacity that failed on a single day. Forced outages carry greater operational uncertainty because their timing cannot be coordinated with demand, renewable output or network conditions. The data demonstrate why actual plant availability, repeat failures and realistic return-to-service dates should accompany Installed Capacity when assessing power-system adequacy.
