Chennai, March 27 - India's atomic power plant operator Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) Tuesday reached its target of generating 32,000 million units with an average plant load factor (PLF) of around 80 percent across all its plants, said a senior official.

Speaking to reporters here, NPCIL's Director (Technical) S.A. Bhardwaj said: "Today (Tuesday) the company achieved this year's target of generating 32,000 million units."

NPCIL's generation last fiscal was 26,473 million units with a PLF of 79 percent.

The operating capacity of NPCIL's 19 reactors is 4,680 MW.

According to Bhardwaj, the PLF is higher in plants using imported fuel and lower in those that use domestic fuel.

"The two units in Narora Atomic Power Station (Uttar Pradesh) and Madras Atomic Power Station (Tamil Nadu), four units in Kaiga Generating Station (Karnataka) and one unit in Tarapur Atomic Power Station (Maharashtra) are operating at a PLF of 68-70 percent owing to fuel shortage. Next year the fuel situation would ease when the uranium mine in Tumalapalli in Andhra Pradesh starts production," Bhardwaj said.

According to him many of the NPCIL's atomic power units located in Rajasthan, Gujarat and two units in Tarapur are have just over 100 percent PLF.

A senior NPCIL official preferring anonymity told IANS that the company is expected to close this fiscal with a revenue of around Rs.8,000 crore as against around Rs.6,000 crore earned last fiscal.