News Analysis India

Tag: Power cuts

  • Due to coal shortage power cuts in Punjab going to increase in coming days

    Express News Service

    CHANDIGARH: The power situation remains to be grim in the state due to the coal shortage as five to six hours power cuts are being imposed in villages across the state and one to two hours in cities and in the coming days, the situation will be much worst as the duration of these cuts is likely to be increased.

    As already four units out of 15 units in four thermal plants are shut, causing a loss of 1,410 MW. Thus  Congress and SAD are taking a dig at the AAP Government for their alleged failure to tackle the power shortage.

    Sources said that as of yesterday afternoon the power load in the state touched a maximum of 7,353 MW as on average as of now 6,362 MW but in the coming days it is going to increase upto 15,000 MW thus there will be a shortage of 700 to 2,000 MW during peak time.

    “Already the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) is imposing power cuts ranging from five to six hours in villages across the state and one to two hours in cities.  Starting May the power situationin the state will be going towards the grim side and in June and July the state will have an acute shortage of power thus major power cuts are expected as that will be also the paddy sowing season so power will be needed in the agriculture sector also,’’ said a senior official of PSPCL and added that the situationgot worse due to the shutting down of units in private thermal plants and continuous rise in power demand.

    It is learnt that the cities of Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Sangrur and Amritsar cities faced power cuts today but PSPCL officially claims there are no power cuts in urban areas.

    The power situation remains to be grim in the state as four units out of 15 units in five thermal plants remained shut, causing a loss of 1,410 MW. As two units of GVK thermal plant are shut because of coal shortage, one unit of Talwandi Sabo Power Limited at Mansa is shut because of a technical snag and another unit of Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Plant at Ropar is shut for annual maintenance.

    But the officers in the PSPCL maintain that there is no shortage, in spite of a huge surge in demand. The daily coal requirement of all five thermal plants is around 75 metric tonnes while operating at the plant load factor of over 85 per cent. Despite running at reduced capacity, the thermal plants are not even getting half the daily coal requirement thus they are producing less power.

  • India stares at power crisis with coal stocks down to days

    By Associated Press

    NEW DELHI: An energy crisis is looming over India as coal supplies grow perilously low, adding to challenges for a recovery in Asia’s third-largest economy after it was wracked by the pandemic. Supplies across the majority of coal-fired power plants in India have dwindled to just days worth of stock.

    ALSO READ: 64 power plants across India have coal stock for less than four daysFederal Power Minister R. K. Singh told the Indian Express newspaper this 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 on Wednesday, October 6, 2021, the most recently 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. That’s a sharp plunge from 13 days in August. Power consumption in August jumped by nearly 20% from the same month in 2019, before the pandemic struck, the power ministry said.”Nobody expected economic growth to revive like this and for energy demand to shoot up so quickly,” said Vibhuti Garg, an energy economist at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. The shortfalls in supply were worsened by flooding of mines and other disruptions from unusually heavy rains, Garg said. India mostly relies on domestically mined coal. With global coal prices at an all-time high, increasing imports is not an option, experts said. The government has asked state-run Coal India Ltd. to increase production. Coal prices in Indonesia, one of India’s suppliers, swelled to nearly $162 per ton this month from $86.68 in April, boosted by surging demand in China, where recent power cuts have forced factories to shut down and left some households in the dark. “With the current prices, it is difficult for India to rely on external sources for coal as it’s about two or three times more than what we pay domestically right now,” said Swati DSouza, research lead at National Foundation for India. With monsoon rains receding, coal deliveries have picked up and are likely to rise further, according to the power ministry. An official team is monitoring the situation and following up with Coal India Ltd. and the railways to improve supplies, the ministry said.But the crisis has highlighted India’s need to develop more renewable energy resources given that demand is likely to keep increasing. It should serve as a “turning point for India,” where there is ample renewable energy potential to help offset such disruptions, said Sunil Dahiya, an analyst at the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air. “The situation shouldn’t be used to push for more coal — that is not the crisis. The solution going forward is to move away from coal and other fossil fuels,” he said.