Power crisis: Railways runs 400 carriages to ramp up coal supply

Amid the rampant rise in power demand and the worst electricity shortage in more than six years, Indian Railways has cancelled 240 passenger trains to allow for faster movement of coal carriages in a bid to avoid a power crisis. The Indian railways is running 400 rakes for coal supply, 53 more than last year--- the highest ever according to sources.

The surge in power demand, coupled with an extreme heatwave, has left most Indian states with a limited coal supply, which is the dominant fuel used in electricity generation in the country. From Jammu and Kashmir to Andhra Pradesh, consumers are facing power cuts ranging from 2 hours to 8 hours.

Coal inventories are at the lowest pre-summer levels in at least nine years and peak-power demand in India surged to a record high on Thursday and is seen rising by as much as 8 per cent next month, according to the power ministry. Electricity supply fell short of demand by 1.88 billion units, or 1.6 per cent, during the first 27 days of April according to Reuters.

The sudden spike in coal demand is due to the increase in electricity demand which has forced the Indian Railways to cancel long-distance mail, express and passenger trains daily in the past couple of weeks to make more way for rakes carrying coal. With this, the national transporter has raised the average daily loading of coal rakes to over 400.

In a joint meet of with the Railway ministry and Power ministry, the Coal ministry had requested Railway to run 422 coal rakes daily to meet the present demand.

Meanwhile, Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain said on Friday that as the whole country faces power issues due to coal shortage, and there is no back up, the better solution to tackle the crisis would be for the Centre to provide more coal. Jain held an emergency meeting on the shortage of coal at the Delhi Secretariat on Thursday and wrote a letter to the Centre asking for adequate coal to the thermal power plants.

The disruption in power supply from Dadri and Unchahar thermal power plants may hit 24-hour power supply to Delhi Metro, hospitals and other important institutions in the national capital, the Delhi government said. According to the daily coal report of the National Power Portal, there is an acute shortage of coal at many power stations of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

The Delhi government also informed that only one day’s coal stock is left at the Dadri-II power plant, Unchahar power plant has two days’ stock, three-and-a-half days’ stock is left in Kahalgaon, Farakka has five days’ stock, while Jhajjar (Aravalli) has seven to eight days’ stock left with it.

Most states are facing severe heatwave conditions and the MET forecasts predict that the mercury can rise to up to 46-degree Celsius in Delhi which would further advance drive demand for coal.

With power cuts showing an increasing trend, April shortages could exceed the large cuts implemented in January 2016 during a previous shortfall in power supply.

(With inputs from Milan Sharma)