Sanjay Singh / New Delhi
Shortage of coal supply is triggering a power crisis and is threatening to stall India’s economy at this time when it’s expanding at an exponential pace.
According to government sources, coal-fired power stations till September end had an average of four days’ worth of stock of the coal fuel, which is the lowest in the past few decades.
It’s also down from 13 days at the start of August this year. More than half the plants are on alert for outages.
Till recently, coal used to produce almost 70 per cent of electricity.
But now spot power rates have surged and supplies of the fuel are being diverted away from key users like steel factories and aluminum smelters.
The situation in India is similar to China, where the latter too faces key challenges with rising power demand as industrial activity has rebounded after pandemic curbs were lifted and at the same time lowering in domestic coal output.
While India meets around three-quarters of its demand locally, however, heavy rains have flooded mines and key transport routes.