(Corrects quantity in fourth paragraph of story published on Oct. 28.)

Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd., the nation’s monopoly producer, said generation may jump 47 percent this year after the U.S. and Europe lifted a ban on the sale of uranium fuel and technology.

“Our fuel situation has improved substantially,” Sudhinder Thakur, executive director, said in an interview in New Delhi today. “Our generation should be between 21 billion and 22 billion units this year.”

The generator of power from atomic energy benefited after the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group lifted the three-decade ban with Asia’s third-biggest economy. Increased nuclear power generation helped narrow India’s peak-hour power shortage, according to Central Electricity Authority data.

Nuclear Power, which has six plants with a combined installed capacity of 4,120 megawatts, received 300 metric tons of uranium from Areva SA this year, Thakur said. Output increased 42 percent in September after a plant in Rajasthan started generating 200 megawatts using fuel supplied by Areva, he said.

Atomic energy accounts for 2.7 percent of India’s total installed capacity of 152,360 megawatts as of Sept. 30, according to the Central Electricity Authority.

The Mumbai-based utility generated 8.4 billion units of power in the first six months of the current fiscal year that started April 1, 15 percent higher than a year earlier,

Nuclear Power had set a target of producing 19 billion units in the year ending March, compared with output of 15 billion units in the previous year, Thakur said.

Power supply in India fell short of peak demand by 11.3 percent last month compared with 14.6 percent a year earlier, according to data on the electricity regulator’s Web site. Power generation increased 7.5 percent in September from a year earlier, the authority said.

One unit, or kilowatt-hour, is the electricity consumed by a 100-watt light bulb if it burns for 10 hours.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gaurav Singh in New Delhi at gsingh31@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 30, 2009 00:43 EDT