Lucknow, April 18 (FN Agency) The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has drawn the attention of the Central and state governments towards depleting coal inventory of domestic thermal power plants and warned of an impending energy crisis in 12 states. Federation Chairman Shailendra Dubey said the crisis could worsen owing to the low coal stock to fire thermal power units. “The coal crisis is being witnessed in 12 states once again after October last year. In the first fortnight of April, domestic power demand hit a 38-year high for the month.
While there was a 1.1 per cent power shortage in October last year, this shortfall shot up to 1.4 per cent in April this year,” he said. Dubey said that Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Jharkhand and Haryana were facing power cuts ranging from 3 to 8.7 per cent. He has urged the government to take immediate steps to replenish the coal inventory in thermal power stations to avert a crisis. The AIPEF said that thermal power generation was likely to be affected due to coal shortage as had happened in October last year. The power demand in Uttar Pradesh has reached 21,000 megawatt and the supply is around 19,000-20,000 MW.
“Though there is no serious coal crisis in thermal power plants operated by UP Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam, their reserve stock is only 26 per cent of the standard norm. The situation is likely to turn difficult with the increase in the demand for electricity with the rise in mercury level,” Dubey said. The AIPED Chairman said the situation had arisen due to the lack of foresight by the management. He said in October last year, the Parichha thermal power station had to be closed due to coal shortage. Union Power Minister R K Singh has blamed the steep rise in the prices of imported coal due to the Russia-Ukraine war for the coal crisis as well as lack of adequate availability of rail wagons to transport coal to power stations. For coal supply to the thermal power stations of the country, 453 rakes are required whereas only 379 rakes were available in the first week of April.