According to sources, the Indian government has invoked an emergency provision that would allow idle power plants relying on imported coal to generate energy in order to alleviate the power crisis exacerbated by the scarcity of coal. Officials from the Ministry of Power department have enlisted the help of people involved in the debt restructuring of financially challenged idle facilities in order to make them operational. Aside from that, a government committee would enable passing on greater generation costs to consumers, the government stated in a decree, according to Reuters.
As a result of the summer season and limited coal extraction, India has been experiencing protracted power outages in various areas of the nation. Stockpiles at coal-fired power plants have fallen by more than 14% since the beginning of April, leaving approximately 100 facilities with critical supply levels, according to a report published by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, according to Bloomberg.
Because of the strong demand that is projected to last until the advent of the monsoon, the reserves are predicted to drop even further. According to Reuters, more than 43% of the imported coal-fired power plants, with a total capacity of 17.6 gigatonnes and accounting for 8.6% of India’s total coal power capacity, are now idle. Union Power Minister R K Singh has also met with state officials to discuss the situation of coal imports for blending in thermal power plants.
According to a statement issued by the power ministry on Friday, Power Secretary Alok Kumar, top officials from state governments, and representatives from energy generation firms (gencos) were present at the meeting, which was held virtually on Thursday. According to the minister, domestic coal will be distributed to all gencos in proportion to the coal received from coal firms. He also recommended that governments enhance the output from captive mines in order to satisfy their coal needs, hence lessening the strain on linkage coal.
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