Union Power Minister RK Singh met Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to discuss higher availability of rakes for the power sector for increasing coal supply to thermal plants amid rising electricity demand in the country. Thermal power plants, especially those far from coal mines, are grappling with low coal stocks even as power demand has surged due to soaring temperatures.
The power ministry in a statement said that RK Singh and Vaishnaw held a meeting to discuss short-term and long-term strategies for dealing with increasing power demand.
The ministers also discussed increasing operational efficiency for loading and unloading of coal, increasing percentage of rakes allotment for the power sector, and other logistics issues, the release said.
Power Secretary Alok Kumar, Coal Secretary AK Jain and senior officials from the Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal and Ministry of Railways were also present during the meeting.
Singh urged the power generation companies to own freight rakes under the scheme of the Ministry of Railways to deal with logistic constraints in coal supply.
According to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), coal stocks were 26% of the normative levels at 155 non-pithead thermal power plants with a total generation capacity of about 163 GW from Monday (April 18) to Thursday (April 21).
At the same time, the demand has shot up by 30GW or over 17% due to the early onset of summer.
According to the latest data of the national grid operator Power System Operation Corporation, the peak power demand met or the highest supply in a day was around 197GW while the peak shortage of electricity was 6 GW on Friday, April 22, 2022.
Several industry bodies have sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention, stating that industries are compelled to purchase power from exchanges at higher rates due to coal shortage to run their captive thermal plants.
Coal Secretary A K Jain has attributed the low coal stocks at power plants to several factors such as heightened power demand due to the boom in the economy post-COVID-19, early arrival of summer, rise in the price of gas and imported coal and sharp fall in electricity generation by coastal thermal power plants.
