Energy crisis in India: power plants dangerously running out of coal

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No less than 63 of the 135 coal-fired power stations Power plants in Asia’s third-largest economy have two days – or less – of coal supply, India’s Central Electricity Authority (ECA) said in a report on Tuesday. Coal stocks of 17 of them were reduced to zero, he added.

In total, 75 power plants operate with five days of coal or less, a level that the CEA considers “super critical”. While these plants do not go offline within days, they are extremely vulnerable to any further disruption in the coal supply or increased demand.

Coal represents nearly 70% of the country’s electricity production.
India’s coal ministry did not respond to a request for comment from CNN Business. But Energy Minister RK Singh told The Indian Express that the situation may not be “comfortable” for the “next five. [to] six months.
Demand for electricity has increased in India as businesses recover from a brutal wave of Covid-19 earlier this year. In a statement released last month, the Department of Energy said that “growing demand for energy bodes well for the economy and is encouraging” because it means more households are able to afford it. provide electricity and that industries return to pre-pandemic levels.

“The demand is not going to go away, it is going to increase,” Singh said The Indian Express. “We added 28.2 million consumers. Most of them are lower middle class and poor, so they buy fans, lights, TVs.”

At the same time, India’s coal supply has been hit by the monsoon season, when heavy rainfall impacts mining and transportation. Singh said the current shortage was “beyond” normal, but had not yet resulted in any power outages.

“[There] is nowhere where we haven’t been able to deliver the requested amount of electricity, ”he said.

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Coal India Limited, which produces most of the coal mined in India, has been asked to increase production, according to a ministry statement.

However, if India is unable to quickly address the coal crisis, “companies in the power sector face the prospect of importing coal at a significant cost”, hampering the recovery economy, according to analysts at Nomura.

The post-pandemic commodity boom and efforts to scale back coal mining to deal with the climate crisis have caused global prices to skyrocket.

As the use of air conditioning generally declines towards the end of the year, relieving pressure on the electricity grid, India will celebrate one of its biggest festivals, Diwali, in November, which could lead to a new one. increased consumption.

“With demand for electricity likely to increase amid continued economic normalization and festive sales ahead, supply side disruptions pose a significant short-term downside risk to growth momentum,” Nomura analysts Sonal Varma and Aurodeep Nandi said Wednesday.

An electricity crisis in China has already triggered power outages for households and forced factories to cut production, threatening to slow down the country’s vast economy and put even more strain on global supply chains .

– Manveena Suri contributed to this report.

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