Electricity has been getting increasingly scarce in India. In a recent survey, two-thirds of households said they had been facing regular power cuts. Residents of some rural areas in the northern states report receiving only a few hours of electricity a day. The shortage has even reached posh parts of Delhi, the capital, whose pampered residents are usually insulated from many of the discomforts suffered by their compatriots. The most immediate reason for the crisis is scorching heat. The past couple of months have been even hotter than usual in South Asia. In north-west and central India, average temperatures in March and April were the highest since records began 122 years ago (see map). As a result, air-conditioners in homes and offices have been whirring away at levels not usually seen until mid-May. That has come on top of already rising demand after the easing of "coronavirus" restrictions and an uptick in economic activity.
India’s government ordered coal-fired power plants that run on imported fuel to operate at full capacity to address an escalating energy crisis that’s threatening economic growth.
The government took the unusual step of invoking a little-used provision in electricity laws to bridge a supply deficit that’s causing widespread blackouts. The order is valid until Oct. 31, the power ministry said in a letter posted on its website.
India is facing a crisis as power demand surges amid a blistering summer. Production of coal, the fossil fuel that accounts for more than 70% of electricity generation, has failed to keep pace, and the energy system is expected to come under further strain as demand tops a recent record in the coming weeks.
India has evoked an emergency law in a bid to start generation at some idle power plants running on imported coal which are not producing power because of financial stress or due to high international prices of coal, the government said on Friday.
India is facing its worst power crisis in over six years, and officials have been scrambling to arrange supply for power plants whose pre-summer inventories are at over nine year lows and as power demand is set to rise at the fastest pace in at least 38 years.
Over 43% of the plants fired by imported coal, which have a total capacity of 17.6 gigawatts (GW) and account for 8.6% of India's total coal power capacity, are currently idle. Officials have also decided to invoke an emergency clause in the country's electricity law to allow the plants to run.
Power ministry officials will work with those involved in debt restructuring of financially stressed idle plants to make them functional, while a government committee will facilitate passing on higher costs of generation to customers, the government said in an order.
Reuters reported last month about India's decision to invoke an emergency clause in the country's electricity law to allow currently idled power plants designed to operate.
The order noted that about 7,600 MW of the 17,600 MW of imported coal-based thermal power capacity in the country was not operating as states have not been able to reach agreements with thermal plants on the pass-through of the higher price of imported coal.
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