India is facing a severe coal shortage that could lead to power outages. Coal supplies at thermal power plants across India have dwindled to just days worth of stock, down from an average of 13 days in early August. Sixteen plants have already run out of coal supplies completely. The shortage is being caused by soaring electricity demand as the economy reopens from COVID lockdowns, combined with falling domestic coal production and lower coal imports. Over half of India's 135 coal-fired power plants were left with less than four days of coal stocks by late September. The coal secretary said daily coal deliveries to power plants are currently short by 60,000-80,000 tons.

1. THE BLACKOUT WARNING
Disrupted Coal Supply, High Electricity Demand Could
Spell a Power Crisis For India
India is facing a severe shortageof coal as the shortageof it could
leave thermal power plants without fuel. Supplies across the majority
of coal-fired thermal power plants in India havedwindled to justdays worth of
stock. The fuel which accounts for 70% of the country’s electricity output,
According to the Central Electricity Authority data, 67% of the135 thermal plants
tracked had justfour days of coal supplies or less. At the startof August, these
plants had 13 days of supplies on average. What is worseis that sixteen of these
plants havecompletely run out of supplies, and 75 have justthree days’ supplies
or less. The demand for electricity is rising with economic activity resuming in the
country. The power demand in August2021 was 17% higher than the pre-Covid-
19 level of August2019, according to the government.
WHY THIS IS HAPPENING?
As economies open up in the restof the world, the demand for importing power-
generation fuels, such as coal, has risen. Similarly in India, the power consumption
in Augustjumped by nearly 20 percent fromthe samemonth in 2019, beforethe
pandemic struck, the power ministry said.
India is facing two challenges- soaring electricity demand asmanufacturing and
business reboundsafter Covid-19 curbs were lifted and a fall in local coal output.
Nobody expected economic growth to revive like this and for energy demand to
shootup so quickly, said Vibhuti Garg, an energy economist at the Institutefor
Energy Economicsand Financial Analysis.
HOW MUCH COAL IS LEFT?
As per data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), over half of the country’s
135 coal-fired power plants wereleft with an average of less than four days of
HARSH KUAMR

2. coal stocks in September-end, down fromthe averageof 13 days at the start of
August. Coal India had warned the Power Ministry of a potential crisis as early as
February 2021. Thecompany told power generators to increasetheir coal stocks
before the monsoon. Despite its request, utilities were using existing stockpiles
and limited fresh purchases amid a rising power output. While the global coal
prices increased by 40 percent, India’s imports fell to a two-year low. India is now
relying heavily on the domestic supply as the imports remain low.
Anil Kumar Jain, Coal secretary, said that currently, deliveries to power plants are
shortby between 60,000 and 80,000 tonnes a day.
FUTURE EXPECTANCES
The crisis is likely to costinflation, industry experts say. They say that the
electricity shortagecould resultin retail inflation, affection prices of oil to food.
GOVERNMENT POINT OF VIEW
Union Power Minister RK Singh told that in relation to the current level of coal
stocks, the situation is way “beyond” normal. He also said that the shortagemight
last for the next fiveto six months.
Singh clarified that the shortagehas not yet led to a power crisis. Headded that
there is no need for rationing and insisted that the production will be able to
meet the demand over the next few days, TheQuint said in a report.
WHAT WAS THE BIG QUESTION?
Privatization of Coal India is only the last option for good supply chain
management. As we seen that privateorganization performs better than
governmentsector. And also we need to focus on energy efficiency and save
electricity. Resources arelimited so it is our duty to savethe planet for the future
generation.