New Delhi: Severe shortage of coal supply is hitting the country hard. It has started impacting power generation in many states including Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi and Tamil Nadu. Being the world’s largest coal consumer after China, the country is expected to face further outages as the coal shortage crisis is looming large.
While some states in the country have witnessed long power cuts, other states are currently facing a blackout, and still, some other states are expected to be affected due to this fresh crisis.
Punjab: Severe coal shortage at thermal power plants in Punjab has forced power utility PSPCL to cut down power generation and impose rotational load shedding at several places in the state. Coal-fired power plants are running at a reduced capacity because of the shortage of coal, said an official of Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL).
With the power situation turning grim, power plants in the state are left with coal stock of up to five days, a PSPCL official told PTI. “Plants are running at a reduced capacity,” said the official adding that they were not being run at full capacity to conserve coal.
The demand for power at present is about 9,000 megawatts (MW) in the state. Officials said besides the demand for power from the agriculture sector, high temperatures in the day is also adding to the power requirements in the state.
Delhi: Expressing concern, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said the national capital could face a power crisis and that his government is taking adequate steps to avoid such a situation. Giving further details, the chief minister said he has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his intervention in making adequate arrangements of coal and gas to generation plants supplying electricity to the city.
“Delhi could face a power crisis. I am personally keeping a close watch over the situation. We are trying our best to avoid it. In the meanwhile, I wrote a letter to Hon’ble PM seeking his personal intervention,” Kejriwal tweeted.
In his letter to Modi, the Delhi CM noted that the city was facing coal shortage since August. “I draw your attention to the prevailing coal shortage situation that is continuing since August/September for the third month in a row,” the letter stated.
Rajasthan: The Rajasthan government on Friday announced that it will begin a scheduled power cut for one hour on a daily basis to tackle the nationwide coal shortage that has pushed many utilities to the brink of running out of coal. The state government said it would make the cuts in 10 major cities that are home to millions of people, making it the first state to officially schedule outages due to the crisis.
Tamil Nadu: On the other hand, the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) on Friday announced that power will be suspended in parts of Chennai for carrying out maintenance work in the city. Several part of the city faced a power shutdown from 9 AM to 4 PM. Among the areas, Sholinganallur, Guindy, Sholinganallur, Injambakkam, Annasalai, Ambattur, Redhills, Perambur and Manali were the worst affected areas across the city.
Jharkhand, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh: Among other states, Jharkhand Bihar and Andhra Pradesh are worst affected by the coal shortage. In Andhra Pradesh, the acute supply shortfalls were pushing it towards unscheduled power cuts, adding that crops could dry up if there is no electricity to power irrigation pumps.
Odisha: The Utkal Chamber Of Commerce & Industry Ltd (UCCI), an association of industries, has urged the Odisha government to ensure adequate supply of coal to state-based industries which are facing an acute shortage of dry fuel to run their units. In a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the UCCI Friday said: “We would like to bring to your kind attention the current acute coal shortage situation in the state with many units having stock out or critical coal stock seriously affecting the viable operation of the industrial units.”
The UCCI also requested the state government to communicate to the Ministry of Coal to give necessary direction to MCL and CIL to step up supply of coal to local industries in the state so that stock out of coal is obviated and safe level of coal stock is maintained in critical units to prevent any eventualities in operations.
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