Heatwaves, coal shortage spark fear of power crisis

Heat waves across several parts of India, the consequent increase in power demand, and fears of a coal shortage have triggered planned blackouts in at least seven states in the country, and experts worry that at least some parts of India could face a serious power crisis this summer.

According to officials across the seven states, a surge in demand for electricity because of a series of heatwaves since mid-March has prompted Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Karnataka to reduce power supply for industry and reschedule supply for the farming sector. The first half of April has seen domestic power demand hit a 38-year high, according to the Union power ministry.

According to data from the power ministry, normative coal stocks, the quantum required to keep plants running at full capacity for 26 days, were low across India, except in coal-rich states such as Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. In West Bengal, coal stock was 1- 5% of the normative level, in Rajasthan it was 1-25%, in Uttar Pradesh 14-21%, and in Madhya Pradesh 6-13%. Overall, at the national level, it was 36%, a dip of two percentage points since last week. In mid-March, it was about 50%.

Although the portal shows the shortfall of only 3,002 megawatts (MW) as against the total peak requirement of 1,88,576 MW across the country, state government officials said requests for additional supply of power are not been addressed by the Power Grid Corporation of India. Officials in Madhya Pradesh, which is facing shortfall of 1,000 MW, and Punjab said their requests for additional supply of power from the central grid have not been accepted.

Madhya Pradesh power minister Pradhyuman Singh Tomar met Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnav on April 11 and requested for additional racks of coal. The Haryana government would soon import coal for the first time in almost a decade to meet its energy needs and to ensure fuel supply to state-run thermal power plants, officials said, adding a global tender has already been floated for purchasing imported coal.

Last week, Union power minister RK Singh held a meeting with officials of Gujarat and a few other states in Ahmedabad, and decided that imported coal based independent power producers (IPP) should operate their power plants at full capacity to reduce pressure on domestic coal demand. Some of these power plants are shut due to high cost of imported coal.

Also Read | Eight-hour blackouts hit India after hottest March since 1901

The Centre has also told power producers to increase blending of imported coal from 4% to 10% to overcome the shortage. “At the meeting, it was observed that coal stocks at the power plant end were only 36% of the normative requirement which would be sufficient for only about 11 days,” said a Gujarat government official aware of the matter.

India’s total installed power generation capacity is around 395,075 MWand of this, around 70% is from thermal power plants. During summer, officials said the pressure on thermal power plants increases as power load factor (PLF) of hydropower plants goes down due to reduction in water supply from hills. This year, the hydropower plants are running at 30-40% of PLF, the power ministry’s website showed.

In some places, state government officials said, power cuts are as long as eight hours. In Uttar Pradesh, officials claimed the cuts were on account of local voltage fluctuations due to sudden spurt in demand. In Haryana, farmers sowing cotton complain of power outages. In Punjab, farmers and industry owners speak of power cuts during evening peak hours, with power distribution companies managing things by allocating power to the agriculture sector during the night.

In Madhya Pradesh, there was a power cut when chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was speaking on the outskirts of Bhopal on Thursday, prompting him to admit to a coal supply crisis in the state. According to the state power department, there is about 10% shortage in supply of power during peak hours resulting in power cuts.

Maharashtra is facing a severe power crisis due to shortage of coal coupled with private plants reducing their power supply with power demand soaring to 24,800 MW this year, from 22,000 MW last year around this period. “The load shedding is inevitable as the demand for power has increased sharply due to summer,” said state energy minister Nitin Raut.

Bihar is facing power shortage of about 10% resulting in load shedding in certain areas between 7 pm to midnight. In Goa, the state government reversed its decision to cut power for industry for three to four hours during peak hours after protests by industry associations. In Uttarakhand, chief minister Puskhar Singh Dhami directed officials to find solution to power crisis, especially in the industrial areas, at the earliest.

At least three chief ministers have written to the Centre over coal shortage leading to power cuts. On Friday, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to direct the coal ministry to supply 72,000 MT coal per day to the state to maintain uninterrupted power supply. Stalin added that the state currently has sufficient coal to meet the immediate demand. Last week, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Rajasthan chief minister Ashol Gehlot wrote to the Union government highlighting shortage of coal supplies to state run thermal power plants. A Rajasthan government official on Friday said the state has enough coal to run power plants for 4-5 days and claimed situation was better than in states such as Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and West Bengal.

However, no power cuts have been reported from the North-East states, which are witnessing pre-monsoon showers, and from Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

A representative for advocacy group All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) said thermal plants in 12 states were grappling with coal shortages, indicating a looming power crisis in the country. AIPEF said states such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Jharkhand and Haryana are facing power cuts due to the coal shortage. “Although outages aren’t uncommon in India, the situation this year particularly points to a “looming power crisis,” Shailendra Dubey, chairman of All India Power Engineers Federation, an advocacy group told news agency Bloomberg.

Demand for power, and coal, increased as temperatures rose to 42.6 degrees Celsius on April 20, the hottest (for the day) in five years, according to the India Meteorological Department. The national average maximum temperature reached almost 33.2 degree Celsius in March, the highest on record since authorities started collecting the data in 1901.

(With inputs from state bureaus and Bloomberg)