New Delhi: The Delhi government on Friday once again flagged an "acute shortage" of coal, claiming that many power plants are left with only one day's stock and warned of supply disruptions to the national Capital with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal calling for the Centre to take quick and concrete steps to address the issue.
Talking to reporters, Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain said there is an "acute shortage" of coal due to the unavailability of an adequate number of rakes and warned there may be "difficulty" in supply if power plants are shut.
Previously, Jain had said that the looming crisis could end up hitting important services like the Delhi Metro and several state-run hospitals in the Capital.
"There is a huge shortage of power in the country. So far we have managed it somehow in Delhi. The situation is very grave in the whole of India. Together we soon need to find its solution. Quick, concrete steps are required to tackle this problem," Kejriwal tweeted.
Jain said the main reason for "huge shortage" of coal was lack of adequate number of rakes. "Produced electricity cannot be stored, so in normal circumstances, the reserve of coal should be more than 21 days. Earlier, there were 450 rakes in the trains carrying coal, which have been reduced to 405, and need to immediately increase the number to deal with the crisis," Jain said.
Under any circumstance, there must be at least 7 days of coal storage so that the power plants can operate at their full capacity, he said. "More than 21 days of backup is the norm in all power plants, but in the last few days, it has been reduced to only 1-2 days," Jain said, adding that the Central government should take appropriate steps to solve the problem at the earliest.
He also denied any pending payments of Delhi to the Centre regarding coal supply.
Jain had also held an emergency meeting to assess the situation and wrote to the Centre requesting it to ensure adequate coal availability to power plants supplying electricity to Delhi.
Sources said the Delhi government may scale up generation at its gas-based power plant with 1,500 MW capacity. However, the cost of gas could be a restrictive factor in doing so, they said.
Delhi receives 1751 MW power per day from Dadri-II, Unchahar, Kahalgaon, Farakka and Jhajjar plants. The Capital gets the maximum supply of 728 MW from Dadri-II power station, while it receives 100 MW from the Unchahar station, the Delhi government had said earlier.
The peak power demand of Delhi has been shooting up with maximum temperature reaching up to record levels. The city's power
demand peaked at 6050 MW at 11.17 PM on Thursday
with this amount increasing by the day.
On Friday, the power demand peaked at 6,197 MW. In fact, the power demand has risen by over 7 per cent in the last 48 hours.