India is witnessing acute shortage of coal leading to electricity blackouts in many states while the country swelters under record summer temperatures.
According to the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF), 12 states in the country are reporting low coal stock to run thermal power plants. Meanwhile, the first half of April 2022, the domestic power demand has hit a 38-year high for the month.
States like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Jharkhand and Haryana are facing power cuts due to the coal shortage. The AIPEF says that the country has been reporting power shortage since October 2021.
The disruption is as long as eight hours in some places and forcing people to either endure the heat or look for other alternatives.
Coal is a crucial element behind India’s power industry as the fossil fuel accounts for over 70 percent of the electricity generation within the country. The shortage comes at a time when the country is pacing forward after a post-Covid recovery.
As per Central Electricity Authority’s (CEA) latest daily coal report, the coal stock at 81 out of a total of 150 thermal power stations using domestic coal is critical as per guidelines, the statement said.
The condition of the private sector thermal plants is equally bad as the coal stock of 28 out of 54 plants is in a critical stage, it pointed out.
In the northern region, the worst suffering states are Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. All the seven thermal plants with a capacity of 7,580 MW in the Rajasthan state sector have critical coal stock. In Uttar Pradesh, 3 out of 4 state sector thermal plants with a capacity of 6,129 MW with exception of Anapara thermal are having critical coal stock.
The coal shortage is a concern not just for power plants. The crisis is also fanning inflation at a time when the global market is already reeling under fuel price hike owing to the Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“Both demand- and supply-side factors are responsible. Electricity demand has shot up, due to the reopening and as the country heads towards the peak summer season, but supply has been disrupted due to the reduced availability of railway rakes to transport coal and lower coal imports,” economists led by Sonal Varma at the Japanese bank wrote in a research note, according to Bloomberg.
While recovering economy and increase in industrial production are major factors, the heat wave is adding to the woes.
New Delhi has already seen seven heatwaves in April, while the Northwest India recorded the hottest March in 122 years.
The power outages have upended operations at some textile mills in the western and southern parts of the country since the high cost of cotton prohibits them from splurging on expensive diesel generators or any other alternatives.
The power outage has also affected farmers in UP who are struggling to irrigate the corn fields.
The coal inventories at Indian power plants have shrunk recently because of lower domestic output, transportation constraints and reduced imports.
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