India will experience its largest power shortfall in 14 years for June, as reported by its government to Reuters, primarily due to reduced hydropower generation. To prevent outages, the government is swiftly deferring scheduled plant maintenance and restarting idle units.
Additionally, a government source revealed delays in commissioning 3.6 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired plants, originally planned to be operational before March.
India’s power sector planning body, the Central Electricity Authority, disclosed that they predict a peak shortage of 14 GW for June, especially during nighttime hours when solar capacity is inactive.
“The planning process is based on worst-case scenarios,” they stated.
Publicly available government data indicates that this gap is the widest since 2009-10. India experienced the sharpest decline in hydroelectricity output in four decades in the year ending March 31, while renewable energy generation remained stagnant.
Power demand in India peaks during Apr-June & Sep-Oct.
Source : Central Eletricity Authority
According to information from the emergency meeting convened by Power Minister R K Singh last week, they decided to postpone the closure of power stations for maintenance work scheduled for June and to restore 5 GW of unused coal generation capacity.
According to gouvernment sources to Reuters, Grid-India, the grid administrator, anticipates a maximum night-time demand of 235 GW in June. On the supply side, government sources report approximately 187 GW of thermal capacity and about 34 GW from renewable sources.
These figures on power demand and capacity projections have not been disclosed before. Last month, the power ministry exercised emergency powers for the first time, instructing gas-based and imported coal-based power plants to operate at full capacity.
India has been a staunch advocate of coal usage, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has curtailed the expansion of coal-based capacity to prioritize the transition to green energy, aiming to achieve net zero emissions by 2070.
Although plans to establish new coal power plants gained traction last year amid pressure from wealthy economies to reduce coal consumption, they will require a minimum of four years before commencing generation.
According to one of the government sources, existing coal-fired power plants and solar installations will aid in fulfilling the nation’s electricity demand during daylight hours.
Source: REUTERS