As heatwave surges, govt scrambles to fill coal need
As India witnesses one of the hottest summers in recent memory, electricity usage for fans, coolers and ACs has broken records, but power utilities have struggled to meet the increased demand amid a shortage of coal, prompting emergency response by authorities at the Centre and states.
The country on Friday saw a record peak demand of 207,111 MW. Power shortage continued to remain high at 8,120 MW on Friday, which was 10,778 MW on Thursday.
In the past seven days, Rajasthan and Haryana have failed to meet peak power demand as shortfalls rose to 2,229 MW (April 27) and 1,355 MW (April 29), according to reports prepared by the Union power ministry between April 23 and 29.
From Friday, states such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh too started recording shortfalls of up to 1,170 MW, even as the situation seemed to ease a bit in Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh after they boosted coal imports and stepped up pur₹2,608.07 chases from power exchanges.
The coal inventory at thermal power plants was reviewed at a meeting chaired by Union power minister RK Singh. He also took stock of Delhi’s power situation separately after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi power minister Satyendar Jain flagged low coal inventory. Although Delhi so far has not seen peak power shortfall, Singh on Saturday said all distribution companies of the national capital will get as much as power as needed.
He also took note that the three Delhi government-run gas power plants are running at partial capacity. The reason for this was low supply and increased cost gas, Delhi power department officials said, requesting anonymity. However, minister Singh urged the Delhi government to ramp up power generation, while assuring adequate supply from GAIL India.
On Saturday, states and the opposition continued to blame the Centre for the coal crisis, which has been aggravated by the steep increase in power demand amid the unusually high temperatures across the country. April this year was the hottest in 122 years.
Officials in the coal and power ministries, however, said Coal India is not resorting to restricted supply despite non-payment of dues totalling ₹7,918.72 crore by several state power generation utilities. Maharashtra’s power generation company owed at least crore, West Bengal’s ₹1,506.97 crore, Jharkhand at least ₹1,018.22 crore, and Tamil Nadu ₹823.92 crore, HT reported on April 29. All four are oppositionruled states.
They were followed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Madhya Pradesh, which owes ₹531.42 crore. Other BJP-led states such as Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana had dues of ₹213.79 crore, ₹134.60 crore and ₹38.24 crore, respectively.
State power utilities of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu also owed dues amounting to ₹1,370.82 crore to Singareni Collieries owned by the central government, the coal ministry stated on Saturday.
Taking a dig at the Centre over the power crisis, Congress leader P Chidambaram said on Saturday that the ministries of coal, railway and power are desperately inventing excuses to hide their “monumental” incompetence.
“Abundant coal, large rail network, unutilized capacity in thermal plants. Yet, there is an acute power shortage the Modi government cannot be blamed for. It is because of 60 years of Congress rule,” he said in a tweet.