New Delhi: While pressure mounts on the Union Government over concerns of a power crisis in several states, Union Home Minister Amit Shah directed the Ministry of Coal and Ministry of Power to ensure the availability of coal stocks and proper distribution. Following complaints from several states on the same, Shah reviewed the situation.
Home Minister also informed that an interministerial subgroup has been monitoring the coal stock situation twice a week. A core management team, constituted by the Ministry of Power is also closely monitoring and managing coal stocks on a daily basis and ensuring follow up actions with Coal India limited, Railways to improve the final supply to power plants.
Union Minister of Coal Prahlad Joshi, Union Minister of Power RK Singh, secretaries of both the ministers, National Thermal Power Corporation Limited officials and others were present in the meeting. Both the secretaries elaborated on the power scenario across the country.
Shah was informed by the officials of the two ministries that heavy rains in coal mine areas during September adversely affected coal production. The officials cited hike in price of imported coal as well as the non-building of adequate coal stocks before the onset of the monsoon as the reasons behind the shortage of coal stocks.
As per government statistics, power consumption from August to September increased from 106.6 billion units (BU) per month in 2019 (pre Covid period) to 124.2 BU per month in 2001. During this period the share of coal-based generation has also increased from 61.92 per cent in 2019 to 66.35 per cent in 2021.
Several states including Delhi, Maharastra, Punjab among others have appealed the Union Government regarding the issue. Amid the looming power crisis, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on October 9 urged the Union Government to shortly bolster the state's coal supply as per quota to overcome the crisis with the impending shutdown of its thermal plants owing to fast depreciating coal reserves which are likely to be over within two days, as per reports.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the same. "I am personally keeping a close watch over the situation. We are trying our best to avoid it," Kejriwal said.
However, the Ministry of Coal had said the country has adequate coal stocks and low inventory does not mean generation will stop as stocks are being continuously replenished. Meanwhile, power producers and distributors issued blackout warnings as generation units are running with coal stocks of less than two days.
Apart from this, Tata Power had halted power generation despite contracts to supply 1,850 megawatts of electricity to Gujarat, 475 MW to Punjab, 380 MW to Rajasthan, 760 MW to Maharashtra and 380 MW to Haryana from its imported coal-based power plant at Mundra in Gujarat, reports said. "We have stopped generation at Mundra as high cost of imported coal is making it impossible to supply under present PPA terms," a Tata power spokesperson said.
The power crisis emerged after the deadly second wave of Covid-19 while the Indian economy started picking up. Over the last two months, electricity consumption jumped almost 17 per cent in the last two months in comparison with the same period in 2019. The global price of coal also witnessed an uptick of 40 per cent and India's imports depreciated to a two-year low, reports said.
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