India heading for Blackout soon?

New Delhi: After coronavirus pandemic, air pollution and violence in a few States, India has now a new reason to worry. This time, the luxury of an air conditioner or even the necessity to charge smartphones may take a hit. Several States are running out of coal at an alarming pace and many are at the brink of an electricity blackout.

In a year when the country produced record coal, excessive rains in coal producing belt hit the movement of rock fuel from mines to power generation units, impacting power generation in many States, including Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi and Chhattisgarh. "Our officials are making continuous efforts to maintain the supply of coal in the State," said Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Sunday.

Joining a long queue, Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi asked the Union government to immediately enhance the State's coal supply as per quota to tide over the power crisis with impending shutdown of its thermal plants due to fast depleting coal reserves.

The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited has also said that there is an acute shortage of coal in the country and has appealed to its customers to "conserve power by switching off lights, devices & air conditioners when not required." Punjab has also cut power for three to four hours.

The situation is alarming in Uttar Pradesh too which is facing massive power cuts. In one of the biggest power projects of the State, Anpara project of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd, the stock of coal is decreasing by 10,000 tonnes a day. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Coal Minister requesting them to provide additional power to UP and normalise the supply of coal.

Another factor that has contributed to the present crisis is power plants that used imported coal to generate electricity, have either curtailed generation or completely stopped as a spurt in international energy prices has made it difficult for them to meet the commitments to States at a particular rate.

In the absence of coal, the units of Sonbhadra Power Plant are shutting down one by one. Due to the closure of 250 MW of Harduaganj-D, 210 MW of Parichha-B and 250 MW of Parichha-C, 2.88 million units of electricity is not being generated per day.

Along with this, the manufacturing units are also being operated at 60 per cent load. The generation of 40-40 MW of electricity has been reduced in three units of Anpara-A with a capacity of 210-210 MW.

Following reports of the severe power crisis due to a sharp decline in coal supplies in several States, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday asked the Coal and Railway Ministry for 20 coal rakes for Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation on priority basis.

The AP CM has also asked for supplies so that revival of non-working pithead power plants on emergency basis can take place. Jagan added that there is a deficit of 500MW from Central power generating companies. As situation looks grim, even banks may be instructed to provide working capital to Discoms to tide over coal payment issue.

Earlier on Friday, the AP government sent a virtual SOS to the Centre, and requested urgent allotment of coal and revival of defunct coal-fired power plants. In his letter to PM Narendra Modi, Jagan said the power demand in the State rose by 20 percent in a month and 15 percent in the last six months.

In Madhya Pradesh, Energy Minister Pradhuman Singh Tomar said the State had coal reserves only for two days. Looking to assuage concerns, Tomar said the issue would be resolved at the earliest and the government would not let the crisis deepen. He said the Centre too was keeping an eye on the crisis and alternatives of coal were being explored.

Meanwhile, Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain on Saturday held a high-level review meeting on the possible power crisis due to coal shortage. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had even warned of a looming power crisis in the national capital of 20 million people due to coal shortages which have already triggered electricity cuts in some eastern and northern States in the past couple of days.

Power Discom Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) CEO Ganesh Srinivasan has earlier said the national capital may go through intermittent rotational load shedding in coming days due to coal shortage across the nation. Srinivasan added the coal-based power stations supplying electricity to Delhi Discoms have coal stocks to meet generation requirements for one-two days against 20 days.

TPDDL, which supplies power to north and northwest Delhi areas, also sent an SMS to power consumers, saying, "Due to limited coal availability in generation plants across north, power supply scenario between 2 pm to 6 pm is at critical level. Kindly use electricity judiciously. Be a responsible citizen. Inconvenience caused is regretted."

In Rajasthan too power cuts have been intermittent. The Congress-led state has said that it will schedule one-hour power cuts. Maharashtra and Karnataka too are facing coal shortage issues. Thermal stations in the two States only have coal reserves for two to three days.

Meanwhile Telangana Genco officials have claimed they have coal reserves only for the next seven days.

Eastern states of Jharkhand and Bihar and north western Rajasthan were among the worst affected. Jharkhand recorded a power deficit of 18%-24%, while power supply to Bihar and Rajasthan was between 6% and 17% below requirements.

Industrial States such as Gujarat and Haryana also faced more shortages than average this week, as did some parts of India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh, which faces elections in early 2022.

Kerala has asked its citizens to restrict use of electrical appliances such as grinders and dryers after sunset, a senior official in the state's electricity board said.

Coal shortages in India - the world's largest coal consumer after China - follow widespread outages in neighbouring China, which has shut factories and schools to manage the crisis.

Over half of India's 135 coal-fired power plants, which in total supply around 70% of India's electricity, have fuel stocks of less than three days, data from the Central grid operator showed.

Energy supplies are under strain globally as prices surge and demand and supply chains are strained by the recovery of consumption following lockdowns to contain the pandemic.