Why is the recent Power Crisis in India? Know here

New Delhi: The power crisis has grown in many states in India, including Delhi and Punjab, with coal movement affected due to excessive rainfall in many areas of the country. With imported coal prices reaching record levels, imported coal-fired power plants are producing less than half of their capacity. For these two reasons, the power generation sector is under double pressure.

The crisis of coal will have a direct impact on the production of electricity because most of the electricity in the country is made from coal. However, the Ministry of Energy claims that soon this crisis will be overcome. But why this crisis came, there are four reasons for this...

राजस्थान में एक बार फिर कोयले की कमी से उत्पन्न बिजली संकट के चलते गांवों-शहरों में अघोषित कटौती का दौर शुरु होने से गहलोत सरकार के विद्युत कुप्रबंधन की पोल खुल रही है। कोयले की कमी और तकनीकी कारणों से राज्य में सूरतगढ़, छबड़ा और कालीसिंध पावर प्लांट की करीब 10 यूनिट बंद पड़ी है।

— Rajendra Rathore (@Rajendra4BJP) October 7, 2021

1. The demand for electricity has increased as the economy improves.
2. In September, the production of coal has been affected due to excessive rain around the coal mines.
3. The prices of coal coming from abroad increased. This increased the dependence on domestic coal.
4. Do not stock coal before the onset of the monsoon.

Increased power consumption...

The economy has improved after the second wave of Kovid. This has increased power consumption. At present, 4 billion units are being consumed every day and 65% to 70% of the electricity requirement is from coal, hence the dependence on coal has increased.

In 2019, the electricity consumption in August-September was 106.6 billion units, while in August-September this year 124.2 BUs were consumed. During this period, the production of electricity from coal increased from 61.91% in 2019 to 66.35%. In the same two months of this year, coal consumption increased by 18% as compared to August-September 2019.

In March 2021, the price of Indonesian coal was $ 60 per tonne, which increased to $ 160 per tonne in September-October. This has reduced the import of coal. Power generation from imported coal has decreased by 43.6% as compared to 2019, leading to an additional demand of 17.4 MT on domestic coal between April and September 2021.

What is the government doing?

A Core Management Team has been constituted by the Ministry of Power on August 27 to monitor the coal stock. This team looks after the monitoring and management of coal stock twice a week. The committee consists of officials from the Ministry of Power, CEO, POSOCO, Railways and Coal India Limited.

- This committee had a meeting on 9 October. It noted that as of October 7, Coal India dispatched 1.501 MT of coal in a day, thereby bridging the gap between consumption and supply. A target has been set to take this dispatch to 1.6 metric tonnes in the next three days.