As a power crisis looms, the Indian government invokes the emergency clause

*Paromita Das
According to reports, the Indian government has invoked an emergency clause that will allow idle power stations running on imported coal to generate electricity in order to alleviate the power crisis exacerbated by the shortage of coal.

Officials from the Ministry of Power department have enlisted the help of those involved in the debt restructuring of financially stressed idle plants in order to bring them back online. Aside from that, a government committee will facilitate passing on higher generation costs to customers, according to Reuters.
Long power outages have occurred in some parts of India as demand for electricity rises due to the summer season and low coal output.

Stockpiles at coal-fired power plants have fallen more than 14% since the beginning of April, leaving about 100 plants with critical supply levels, according to a report published by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, according to Bloomberg.

The reserves are expected to shrink further due to high demand, which is expected to last until the monsoon arrives.

According to the data, more than 43% of the plants fired by imported coal, with a total capacity of 17.6 gigatonnes and accounting for 8.6% of India’s total coal power capacity, are currently idle.
Union Power Minister R K Singh has also met with states to discuss the status of coal imports for blending in thermal power plants. The meeting was virtually attended by Power Secretary Alok Kumar, senior officials from state governments, and representatives from electricity generation companies (gencos), according to a statement issued by the power ministry on Friday.

Domestic coal would be supplied to all gencos in proportion to coal received from coal companies, according to the minister.

He also advised states to increase output from captive mines in order to meet their coal requirements, thereby reducing the burden on linkage coal.