Massive coal crisis in India which causes power shortage

Coal crisis in India

In India, coal has been used on a larger scale for the production of electricity. Depletion of coal will directly affect the power production of the country. So why is the shortage?

Amidst the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, a severe shortage of coal on the domestic front has been witnessed. There was an increase of 13.2 % in power consumption during the pandemic which directly demands more power production. 80 pec of coal supply is from Coal India.

Coal India has assured of increasing the production rates to meet the current depletion, rising prices of imported coal have made it difficult for private companies to move smoothly.

Since 70% of India's energy consumption is through coal, the shortage of it has caused issues within the domestic boundary. Companies like Coal India have announced to increase the supply to meet the needs but is unlikely to fulfill so importing is necessary. An increase of almost 100% has been seen in the price of coal while importing.

Many countries have been facing problems to meet the energy demand of their countries. Hours of blackouts, Power-cut, and opening their old power plants back are few measures the countries have taken to meet the energy demand. So, the increase in demand impacts the prices as well.

China and India being the largest producers of coal, are importers of coal as well. If you look at the current situation of coal stocks, according to Central Electricity Authority (CEA), 16 out of 135 coal-fired power plants had zero coal stocks left. Over 80% of plans had less than a week's stock left. As of October 4, 108 out of 135 coal-fired power plants have been reported to be critical or super-critical.