E-Paper
As heatwave surges, govt scrambles to fill coal need
On Friday, the country saw a record peak demand of 207,111 MW. Power shortage continued to remain high at 8,120 MW on Friday, which was 10,778 MW on Thursday.
New Delhi: As India witnesses one of the hottest summers in recent memory, electricity usage for fans, coolers and ACs has smashed records, but power utilities have struggled to meet the increased demand amid a shortage of coal, prompting emergency response by authorities at the Centre and states to tackle the situation.
Also Read | Railways looks to expedite coal transport amid shortage
The country on Friday saw a record peak demand of 207,111 MW. Power shortage continued to remain high at 8,120 MW on Friday, which was 10,778 MW on Thursday.
In the past seven days, Rajasthan and Haryana have failed to meet peak power demand as shortfalls rose to 2,229 MW (April 27) and 1,355 MW (April 29), respectively, according to reports prepared by the Union power ministry between April 23 and 29.
From Friday, states such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh too started recording shortfalls of up to 1,170 MW, even as the situation seemed to ease a bit in Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh after they boosted coal imports and stepped up purchases from power exchanges.
The coal inventory at thermal power plants was reviewed at a Saturday meeting chaired by Union power minister RK Singh. The minister also took stock of Delhi’s power situation separately after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi power minister Satyendar Jain flagged low coal inventory and possible power outages in the capital.
Although Delhi so far has not seen peak power shortfall, Singh on Saturday said all distribution companies of the national capital will get as much as power as they require.
He also took note that the three Delhi government-run gas power plants are running at partial capacity. The reason for this was low supply and increased cost gas, Delhi power department officials said, requesting anonymity. However, minister Singh urged the Delhi government to ramp up power generation in these plants, while assuring adequate supply from GAIL India.
On Saturday, states and the opposition continued to blame the Centre for the coal crisis, which has been aggravated by the steep increase in power demand amid the unusually high temperatures across most parts of the country. April this year was the hottest in 122 years.
Officials in the coal and power ministries, however, said Coal India is not resorting to restricted supply despite non-payment of dues totalling ₹7,918.72 crore by several state power generation utilities.
Maharashtra’s power generation company owed at least ₹2,608.07 crore, West Bengal’s ₹1,506.97 crore, Jharkhand at least ₹1,018.22 crore, and Tamil Nadu ₹823.92 crore, HT reported on April 29. All four are opposition-ruled states.
They were followed by Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Madhya Pradesh, which owes ₹531.42 crore. Other BJP-led states such as Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana had dues of ₹213.79 crore, ₹134.60 crore and ₹38.24 crore, respectively.
“Although dues pertaining to the state gencos of Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal are very high, Coal India has not regulated supply to these gencos, and made adequate supply as per the subgroup plan and availability of rakes,” a coal ministry official said, requesting anonymity. Rakes are goods trains carrying coal from mines to power plants.
State power utilities of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu also owed dues amounting to ₹1,370.82 crore to Singareni Collieries owned by the central government, the coal ministry stated on Saturday.
Taking a dig at the Centre over the power crisis, Congress leader P Chidambaram said on Saturday that the ministries of coal, railway and power are desperately inventing excuses to hide their “monumental” incompetence.
“Abundant coal, large rail network, unutilized capacity in thermal plants. Yet, there is an acute power shortage the Modi government cannot be blamed for. It is because of 60 years of Congress rule,” he said in a tweet.
“If they believed the yarn that we were witnessing a V-shaped recovery, they would have stepped up coal production and coal imports,” he said in another tweet.
Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren too lashed out at the Centre on Saturday for blaming states for the power crisis. On Thursday, Union power minister Singh had said the power outages being faced in states was of their own making, as they had failed to clear dues to Coal India and also lift the mined coal on time. He blamed them of “improper planning” in general.
“States are not paying the dues? Find out what the situation is in the current power crisis and how much one owes. If you want, I can send you the details over WhatsApp as to how much did the government of India pay us back out of the dues we asked back,” Soren said on Saturday.
“Had the government of India paid us back, we would’ve made the purchase at ₹50 per unit and supplied it to the people,” he said at a media briefing. “We had written to the Centre for repayment of over ₹1,30,000 crores of our dues. This due pertains to coal, revenue resources of our mining areas, etc.”
