Barely six months have passed and India is facing yet another coal crisis. In more than 100 thermal power plants in India, coal stock has fallen below the critical mark (<25% of the required stock) and in over 50 plants, it has fallen below the 10% mark. Due to low levels of coal inventories, power generated from thermal plants has significantly declined. This had led to power shortages in several States such as Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh. Planned power outages due to coal shortages have become a norm. More worryingly, the coal crisis has hit at a time when power demand has peaked due to summer months.
Critical situation
The chart plots the stock required (horizontal axis) against the % of actual stock maintained (vertical axis) as of April 18 across 173 thermal power plants. Of the 173 power plants, 101 have been labeled critical, while 51 have less than 10% of the required stock
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Power shortage
The chart shows power supply shortage as % of demand in April. Only States which recorded significant deficits have been listed
Andhra Pradesh has been recording a supply shortage of around 10% every day for the past week. On April 13, Jharkhand suffered a power supply shortage of 17%
Planned outages
The chart shows the daily planned power outages (in megawatts) since April 10 due to the shortage of coal. Outages have consistently been above the 6,000 MW mark for the past nine days
Peaking demand
The chart shows India’s power demand (in gigawatts) across various time periods: December 2021, January 2022, February 2022, March 10 to 18, and April 10 to 18
The average levels in April are consistently higher than average power demand in past few months
Source: POSOCO, Central Electricity Authority, National Power Portal
Also read: Explained | What is the extent of India’s coal crisis?
