Powerless India? Country Hit By Major Power Crisis. These States Could Face Blackouts.

Amid coal shortage India faces a major electricity crisis that could result in blackouts or prolonged power cuts in some states.

India’s Central Electricity Authority (CEA) warned that coal reserves at over half of the country’s power plants could burn out in three days or less as a post-pandemic surge in manufacturing spiked demand for power and caught power producers off guard

“Nobody thought that the industrial demand would pick up so quickly, so power stations did not bother to replenish their coal inventory,” says Nitin Bansal, associate director at India Ratings and Research. “But now stocks are depleting day by day.”

The crisis is due to a variety of reasons such as excess rainfall hitting coal movement and imported coal-based power plants generating less than half of their capacity due to record high rates.

Power plants across the country regulated generation after stock ran low. Against the requirement of maintaining 15 days to 30 days of stocks, over half of the country’s 135 coal-fired power plants, which in total supply around 70 per cent of the nation’s electricity, have fuel stocks of less than two days, as per the data from the grid operator.

It’s an alarming development for Asia’s third-largest economy, where nearly half of its 135 coal-operated power plants have only two days of coal supplies, and at least 17 of its power stations have already leveled to zero of their supplies, according to India’s Central Electricity Authority (CEA). 

“I can’t say I am secure… If you have 40,000-50,000 MW (of thermal capacity) with less than three days of stock, you can’t be secure,” said R.K. Singh, Union Power Minister in the government of India. 

While Singh appeared optimistic that India would be able to sort out the issue, he still finds the current lack of enough electricity generation beyond “normal”.  

India Power Crisis: Reason of Coal Shortage

In addition to increasing coal prices and decreasing Indian imports of coal, rising demand of electricity in the post-pandemic commodity market, and growing world public opinion which disfavours coal mining due to its negative environmental effects, appear to be some of the reasons behind India’s coal shortage. 

But there are also other reasons, experts say. One is related to South Asia’s monsoon season, which records heavy rainfall from June to August every year, limiting coal mining and its transportation across the country. 

India Power Crisis: States That Could Face Blackouts

The following could be worst hit by coal shortage and may face blackouts for prolonged periods.

Delhi: Tata Power Distribution Ltd (TPDDL), which supplies electricity to parts of the national capital, on Saturday warned of intermittent rotational power cuts as units supplying electricity to Delhi discoms have coal stocks to meet generation requirements for 1-2 days, its CEO Ganesh Srinivasan said.

Andhra Pradesh: Andhra Pradesh has been meeting grid demand of about 185-190 mega units (MU) daily. Power generation stations operated by APGENCO, which supply about 45 per cent of the state’s energy needs, hardly have coal stocks for 1 or 2 days and generation from these could be impacted further.

Tamil Nadu:  The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) said that power will be suspended in parts of Chennai for carrying out maintenance work in the city.

Rajasthan: Rajasthan is resorting to one hour power cuts on a daily basis.

Tata Power, which has signed contracts to supply 1,850 MW of electricity to Gujarat, 475 MW to Punjab, 380 MW to Rajasthan, 760 MW to Maharashtra and 380 MW to Haryana from its imported coal-based power plant at Mundra in Gujarat, has stopped generation.

Kerala: Kerala Electricity Minister K Krishnankutty on Sunday said the State government may have to resort to load-shedding in case shortage of power from the Central pool continues for a long time due to non-availability of coal for the thermal power plants. 

Punjab:  Power supply situation continued to remain grim in Punjab with the state-owned utility PSPCL on Sunday saying up to three-hour daily power cut will remain in the state till October 13. Severe coal shortage has forced the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited to cut down power generation and impose load shedding.

Apart from this Bihar and Jharkhand are affected by the power crisis and could face major cuts in the coming days.