Even as the power crisis in the country intensifies, the maximum electricity demand that was met touched 207 giga watt (GW) on Friday, the highest ever. The peak power demand level stood at 205 GW on Thursday, compared with a level of 182.5 GW a year ago.

According to Central Electricity Authority’s daily coal data update, as on April 27, out of the 173 thermal plants across the country, 106 plants have coal stocks that are at critical levels. Out of 150 thermal plants using domestic coal, the number of thermal plants with critical coal stock increased from 81 to 86 in one week, while among private power producers, plants with critical coal stock increased from 28 to 32 during the same period.

According to Shailendra Dubey, chairman of All India Power Engineers Federation, the lack of coordination amongst the ministries of coal, railways and power is responsible for coal shortage, which has caused widespread power outages across the country. “Every ministry is now claiming that it is not responsible for the present mess in the power sector and what is worse is that they (the central government ministries) have now linked the issue to the states’ inability to make timely payments to coal companies,” he said.

“At least 12 out of 15 thermal plants that run on imported coal are also in the critical category. 14 of these are in the private sector. Ever since the cost of imported coal has risen astronomically, they have desisted from procuring coal at escalated rates,” he said, adding that thermal plants with 72,000 MW capacity are closed during the crisis, mostly due to non-availability of fuel, while another 20,000 MW gas-based plants are also closed.

“Against the requirement of about 22 million tonnes of domestic coal for thermal power plants every day, only 16.4 million tonnes of coal is available. The inventory of coal is depleting every day and has now reached a critical position,” he added.

In Rajasthan, six out of seven state sector thermal plants have coal stock at critical levels, while in Uttar Pardesh, three out of four state sector thermal plants have critical coal stock. In Maharashtra, six out of seven thermal plants in the state sector and in Madhya Pradesh, three out of four have critical coal stock. The situation is worse in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, where all state sector thermal plants are having critical coal stock.

“More than a dozen states are imposing power cuts of various duration from two to 12 hours”, Dubey said in a statement, adding that as per Northern Region Load Dispatch Centre (NRLDC) data, there is a total shortage of about 143.6 lakh units in the northern region. Rajasthan has a maximum shortage of 43.5 million units, followed by Haryana at 33.7 million units, Punjab at 30.6 million units and Uttar Pradesh at 29.5 million units, it said.