Heatwave, coal shortage spark fear of power crisis
Heat waves across several parts of India, the consequent increase in power demand, and fears of a coal shortage have triggered planned blackouts in at least seven states in the country, and experts worry that at least some parts of India could face a serious power crisis this summer.
According to officials across the seven states, a surge in demand for electricity because of a series of heatwaves since mid-March has prompted Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Karnataka to reduce power supply for industry and reschedule supply for the farming sector. The first half of April has seen domestic power demand hit a 38-year high, according to the Union power ministry.
According to data from the power ministry, normative coal stocks, the quantum required to keep plants running at full capacity for 26 days, were low across India, except in coal-rich states such as Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. In West Bengal, coal stock was 1- 5% of the normative level, in Rajasthan it was 1-25%, in Uttar Pradesh 14-21%, and in Madhya Pradesh 6-13%. Overall, at the national level, it was 36%, a dip of two percentage points since last week. In mid-March, it was about 50%.
Although the portal shows the shortfall of only 3,002 megawatts (MW) as against the total peak requirement of 1,88,576 MW across the country, state government officials said requests for additional supply of power are not been addressed by the Power Grid Corporation of India. Officials in Madhya Pradesh, which is facing shortfall of 1,000 MW, and Punjab said their requests for additional supply of power from the central grid have not been accepted. Madhya Pradesh power minister Pradhyuman Singh Tomar met Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnav on April 11 and requested for additional racks of coal.
Amid supply crunch, govt reworks coal allocation
Summers have just begun and India is already staring at yet another coal crisis as power demand continues to soar with the country recording a peak demand of 197,283 MW.
While Thursday’s demand was not even the highest the country has ever seen, at least 3,000 MW of power demand could not be met on the same day, primarily owing to plants either being shut or running below their installed capacity due to coal shortage.
Taking note of the imminent crisis, the power ministry on Friday changed the methodology of how coal allocated to states could be used by private independent power generating stations (IPPs). It also tweaked the timeline of the bidding process, in an attempt to ease coal availability at power plants. On Wednesday, the power demand that remained unmet was as high as 7,681 MW.