India has been going through an unusual crisis of electricity supply. This shortage of power supply may result in a whole blackout within no time across the country. The supply of coal-fired power has drawn down to 3-5 days stock. India’s capital, Delhi would be the most affected experts are assuming.
- Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain warned everyone about this national crisis. Amid the possibility of a power blackout, the minister stated that there is a coal shortage in most of the power plants, and stock is left for only 2-3 days. According to him, Thermal power plants should have at least one month’s supply of coal. But coal reserves at Delhi’s power plants have reached the bottom. Jain said,
- “There is no coal power plant in Delhi. We buy electricity from coal plants situated in other states. NTPC has capped the production capacity of all its plants to half. There can be two reasons, first coal shortage or secondly Centre has told them to do it.”
- “Blackout depends on them. Right now they are giving only half supply, if they stopped giving it then blackout might happen,” he added.
- The CM of Delhi, Mr. Arvind Kejriwal said, ‘All efforts are being made to address the power crisis and his government does not want any “emergency situation”. The situation is very critical in the entire country. Several chief ministers have written to the Centre about it. All are trying together to improve the situation.’
- By the years, power cuts and shortages have had subsided in the big cities and towns however the problem remained in the rural and small towns.
- Out of India’s total 135 coal plants, 108 were facing critically lower stocks, while 28 of them were down to just one day’s worth of supply max, according to power ministry data released recently.
- As India mostly relies on domestically mined coal, now it’s not possible for them to import such a big amount to fix the crisis they are going through. Self-dependently India has been using coal from their own supply so with the high global price rate they cannot fulfill the need. The Indian government has asked state-run Coal India Ltd. to increase production.
- Despite having the world’s fourth-largest coal reserves, India is the world’s second-largest coal importer. However, their power plants mainly use domestic coal. This has put even more pressure on local institutions under pressure.
- Compared to 2019, the demand for electricity in India has increased by about 16 percent in the last two months. At the same time, global coal prices have risen by at least 40 percent, pushing Indian coal imports to a two-year low.
According to the BBC, India’s coal crisis has not been rushed but has been simmering for a long time. The country’s electricity demand has risen sharply as economic activity picks up in the wake of the second shock of the Corona epidemic.
