India near crisis as coal stocks dip

NEW DELHI — An energy crisis is looming for India as coal supplies grow perilously low, adding to the challenges facing the country’s pandemic-battered economy, Asia’s third largest.

Supplies across the majority of coal-fired power plants in India have dwindled to just days’ worth of stock.

Federal Power Minister R.K. Singh told the Indian Express newspaper last week that he was bracing for a “trying five to six months.”

“I can’t say I am secure. … With less than three days of stock, you can’t be secure,” Singh said.

The shortages have stoked fears of potential blackouts in parts of India, where 70% of power is generated from coal. Experts say the crunch could upset renewed efforts to ramp up manufacturing.

Power cuts and shortages over the years have subsided in big cities, but are fairly common in some smaller towns.

Out of India’s 135 coal plants, 108 were facing critically low stocks, with 28 of them down to just one day’s worth of supply, according to power ministry data released Wednesday, the most recent available.

On average, coal supplies at power plants had fallen to about four days’ worth of stock as of the weekend, the ministry said in a statement. In August, it was 13 days.

Power consumption in August jumped by nearly 20% from the same month in 2019, before the pandemic struck, the power ministry said.

The shortfalls in supply were worsened by flooding of mines and other disruptions from unusually heavy rains.

India mostly relies on domestically mined coal. With global coal prices at an alltime high, boosting imports isn’t an option, experts said.

The government has asked state-run Coal India to increase production.