Indian Coal Crisis: Delhi Government Warns Power Outages May Hit Metro & Hospitals

© Photo : WillaMissionaryDelhi Metro
Delhi Metro  - Sputnik International, 1920, 29.04.2022
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A record-breaking sweltering heat has increased India's demand for power. Last week, several states — Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh, urged the federal government to increase the coal supply to them as the states are facing some of the longest power cuts ever.
The Government of Delhi has warned of a 24-hour power supply disruption that could affect hospitals and the metro, among other critical public services.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led city government has written to the federal government to intervene in the matter and provide adequate coal to the thermal power plant.
On Thursday, Delhi's Power Minister Satyendar Jain held an emergency meeting to assess the situation and wrote to the central government, requesting that it ensure adequate coal availability to power plants that supply electricity to the national capital.
Up to 30% of electricity in Delhi is being provided by the Dadri-II and Unchahar power stations, and they are facing a shortage of coal, the minister stated. Delhi has six power stations, including two coal-burning ones.
With Delhi experiencing abnormally high temperatures in April this year, the power demand in the city has scaled up by 34 percent since the beginning of the month. The power demand crossed the 6,000 MW-mark on Thursday for the first time in the month of April, officials said, adding it was 4,469 MW on 1 April.
The peak power demand is expected to be around 8,200 MW this year. On 2 July 2019, Delhi consumed an all-time high power of 7,409 MW.Thermal plants across the country are grappling with a coal shortage, indicating a looming power crisis in the country, the All India Power Engineers Federation said.
On 24 April, coal stocks at 173 plants across the country stood at 21.77 million tonnes against a requirement of 66.33 million tonnes of coal, according to data from the CEA. Over 100 power plants have critically low stocks — below 25 percent of the required level, the Central Electricity Authority of India (CEA) data shows.
This level, called the normative level, depends on the demand and varies from plant to plant.
However, the central government has maintained that it has enough coal stock, and dismissed all coal shortage allegations in a 24 April tweet.
In more than 50 thermal plants, the stock has fallen below the 10 percent mark, leading to states seeking additional coal supplies from Coal India Ltd (CIL), the CEA's data shows.
© Photo : TwitterIndian Coal Ministry Tweet
Indian Coal Ministry Tweet  - Sputnik International, 1920, 29.04.2022
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