India is facing its worst power crisis in six years as heatwaves raged across vast regions of South Asia, causing widespread power outages.
Here is a summary of the factors behind the crisis.
Why is India facing a power crisis?
The economic recovery was hit this year due to increased demand for air-conditioning due to scorching heat, and lifting of all COVID-related restrictions on industrial activities. energy demand To record highest in April.
Millions of Indians are working from home as a result of the new hybrid work model adopted since the COVID-19 hit in 2020, increasing residential daytime electricity use. The gap between power supply and consumption is often wider at night when solar supplies are cut off and demand for air conditioning increases.
Aggressively increasing production resulted in many power plants running out of fuel, with average coal stocks near the lowest utilities for this time of year in at least 9 years.
Despite record production by state-run Coal India, which accounts for 80% of domestic coal production, many utilities were not able to replenish the stock due to the Indian Railways’ inability to supply enough Coal India trains.
What is India doing?
The crisis has prompted India to reverse its thermal reduction policy coal import to zero, and asked utilities to continue imports for three years.
It also enacted an emergency law to begin production at all plants that run on imported coal, many of which are currently closed due to high international coal prices.
Low inventories have forced Coal India to divert supplies to utilities at the expense of the non-power sector. State-run Indian Railways has canceled passenger trains to clear the tracks for the movement of coal.
India is planning to reopen over 100 coal mines that were earlier considered economically unviable.
Who is affected by the crisis?
According to citizen-survey platform LocalCircle, nearly half of its 35,000 respondents from across the country said they faced power cuts this month.
Factories in at least three states were closed for hours as authorities struggled to handle the demand.
As the supply of coal to power plants operated by energy-intensive industries was restricted, factories began to draw power from the grid, increasing industrial costs and putting further pressure on coal-fired power plants.
Electricity usage by eastern Odisha state, home to the country’s largest aluminum smelter and steel mills, grew by more than 30% in October-March, nearly ten times the average national growth.
What will happen next?
Officials and analysts believe that India will face more power cuts this year due to low coal inventories and power demand is expected to grow at the fastest pace in at least 38 years.
Power generation from coal-fired plants, which accounts for about 75% of India’s annual electricity generation, is expected to grow by 17.6 per cent this year, the highest rate in a decade.
Coal India’s production and train dispatch are likely to be affected during the annual June-September monsoon season.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.