Coal crisis: 10.77 GW reduced power supply in the country, cuts continue in many states

Due to the shortage of coal and rising heat, the power crisis in the country has deepened. The shortfall in supply this week was 5.24 GW on Monday, which reached 10.77 GW on Thursday. The reason for this was less coal and scorching heat in power generation plants. Amid scorching heat across the country, power supply reached record levels thrice during peak hours this week.

On Tuesday, this record reached 201.65 GW. With this, it crossed the maximum level of 200.53 GW on 7 July last year. Electricity demand was at a record high of 204.65 GW on Thursday and reached an all-time high of 207.11 GW on Friday. Despite the decrease in demand and the provision of 1600 MW of additional power in UP, there is a power crisis. Heavy power cuts continue.

Power crisis: Energy Minister said - the Delhi government is misleading on coal

Union Energy Minister RK Singh has expressed displeasure, calling the information released by the Delhi government regarding the power crisis in Delhi misleading. In response to Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain's letter to the Center expressing concern over the condition of coal reserves at some of the NTPC plants, Singh on Sunday wrote a letter explaining the exact status of coal in the plants.

Singh has informed in the letter that the Dadri plant has 202400 tonnes of coal which are enough for more than 8 days. The Unchahar plant has 97620 tonnes of coal and can run for more than 4 days. Similarly, the Kahalgaon plant has 187000 tonnes of coal which are sufficient for more than 5 days.

Electricity is lying even on surrender

RK Singh said that in 2015, the Delhi government had surrendered some of the electricity received from the Central Pool. As per the prescribed procedure, this power was allocated to other states in 2017, 18, and 19. Then the Delhi government did not raise any objection to this. After this, in 2021, suddenly the Delhi government started claiming that they had not surrendered the electricity. This is a completely false claim as the Union Ministry of Power has a letter surrendering power from the Delhi government.

Power crisis deepens, cuts start

Amidst the scorching heat, the power crisis in Delhi has started deepening. Cuts were also made in many parts of Delhi on Sunday. However, the central government has asked the power supply companies in Delhi to supply electricity according to the demand. Thermal plants are grappling with the shortage of coal. The power supply company is also worried about this.

Despite the heat, the electricity demand did not reach above 6000 MW on Sunday, but it is expected to increase suddenly with the opening of all government and private offices on Monday. On the other hand, not only in unauthorized colonies, power supply was disrupted for some time on Saturday and Sunday in many parts including Uttam Nagar, Mukherjee Nagar, Laxminagar, Wazirabad village, Najafgarh, Dwarka.

Coal demand, consumption up 20% over last year: Railways

Railway Board Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) VK Tripathi said on Sunday that the demand and consumption of coal have increased by about 20 percent this year as compared to 2021. Tripathi's statement comes from the increased demand for coal to meet the rising power demand amid rising temperatures in Maharashtra.

The temperature has reached above 41 degrees in many parts of the state. He said that the demand and supply of coal have increased significantly this year as compared to last year. That's why we are transporting more coal. We are also running additional coal racks. For this, we are also giving priority to them on mail and express trains. We transported 15 percent more coal in April 2022 as compared to April 2021.

Also Read: Coal crisis in the country: Government's defense through statistics, Union Minister said - there is no need to panic