Feasible Solutions & Options for Overcoming Electricity Power Crisis in India A major power crisis has arisen in front of us today owing to shortage of coal, plunging entire world, including India, into complete darkness. Coal is crucial for India’s energy supply as 70% of India’s electricity generation depends on Coal. Every country is finding way out to deal with current power crisis which cannot be resolved overnight, especially for developed countries like India, which has 135 coal-fired power plants, but unfortunately, 70 amongst them reporting shortage, not having sufficient amount of coal supply resulting in running out of existing stockpiles within few days. Due to country’s severe shortage of coal, particularly in India, power generation in states like Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu, has begun to suffer. Going by forecast, India was recently hit by power crisis when daily peak shortage rose to 10,778 MW, energy deficit reaching to 5% at national level, with some states experiencing steep deficits of upto 15%. Consequently, discoms resorted to load-shedding, leading to long duration of outage in many households and rationed supply for economic activities. As of September 2021, thermal power (power generating from burning coal, gas, petroleum) constitutes 60% of India’s installed capacity in power generation, coal-based power generation with capacity of around 210 gigawatts (GW) of total 396 GW accounts for about 53% of India’s total power capacity as on March 2022, India importing about 20% of its thermal coal requirement.
Probable Causes of Power Crisis:
Revival of economic activities-Heatwaves and revival of economic activities post COVID-19 disruptions propelled electricity demand, average daily energy requirement increasing to 4,512 million units (MU) in April 2022 from 3, 941 MU in April 2021, registering 14.5 % growth. Inefficiency & Incompetency of TPPs-With 236 GW of thermal power plants (TPPs) running much below capacity (at 59% capacity utilisation), India could’ve managed this demand surge by ramping up thermal generation. Cash Flow Problem in Electricity Sector-Inability of discoms to recover cost results in outstanding dues of over Rs.1lakh crore to power generation companies (GenCos) default on payments to Coal India Limited (CIL). Discom Losses-Aggregate losses stand at 21% (2019-20), reflective of both operational inefficiency & poor recovery of dues from consumers and discoms inability to pay generators on time leading to payment delays to Coal India. Multiple Structural Fault Lines-Chronic insolvency of discoms disrupting upstream supply chains, utilities not undertaking effective resource planning & blame-game of states to Centre for faulty coal allocation & Centre pushing blame on state’s inability to pay upstream suppliers.
Solutions For Preventing Electricity Crisis In India:
Planning & policy reforms involving scarcity management to one of flexible resiliency. o Need to introduce feedback loops in ecosystem-incentives to achieve/exceed compliance but repercussions if they don’t. o Policy focus must be on long-term structural solutions addressing distribution financial viability coupled with robust mechanism for resource planning.