India warns of possible power shortage

• 2 years ago (2021-10-06)
• David Flin

Asia 846 Coal 273

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R. K. Singh, the Indian Power Minister, said that India is facing a possible energy supply problem in the coming months due to coal shortages and a post-pandemic surge in demand. He said: Normally, the demand starts coming down in the second half of October when the weather starts to cool. But it is going to be touch and go. Demand is not going to go away; it’s going to increase. We’ve added 28.2 million consumers. Most of them are lower-middle class and poor, so they are buying fans, lights, television sets.”

India’s coal-fired power stations had on average four days’ stock at the end of September, the lowest in years. More than half the plants are on alert for outages and the government is considering bringing idled power stations back into operation.

Coal accounts for nearly 70 per cent of India’s electricity generation and around three-quarters of the coal is mined domestically.