Nagpur: National coal crunch faced by hot power plants has not been built overnight.
On the contrary, it was a gradual decline in coal stock in power plants since April 2020, revealing the latest analysis of government data that highlighted the situation as more than “management crisis” rather than coal.
According to the analysis, failure is likely at the end of the power plant that does not prepare coal despite having sufficient time.
The latest research on the country’s coal crisis conducted by a research center on energy and clean air (Crea) is based on data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and the Coal Ministry (MOC).
According to research, coal-based power plants have 50.9 million tons (MT) coal shares in April 2020 and 20.8MT in May 2021.
“They now face a crisis when coal stock in power plants fell to 8mt in the end September 2021.
It’s further Reduced to 7.3MT (enough for four days) at the end of the first week of October 2021, “the analysis stated.
On Thursday, TOI reported that Coal India Limited (CIL) had asked all thermal power plants in the state to store coal.
Sunil Halisan Dahiya and Shivansh Ghildiyal further found that the demand for electricity was higher in 2021 compared to previous years.
The highest peak request in India on July 7, 2021, at 200.57 GW.
“Although unprecedented electricity demand in July and August 2021, the contribution of coal plants remains lower, thanks to a higher generation of renewable sources and hydro.
This is mostly helpful in fulfilling demand and giving a breath to power plants Coal, “they said analysis, Cil produced 84MT coal in March 2020 and 81mt in March 2021, increasing production of around 20mt from the previous months.
“Given that CIL production remains consistent since April 2021 and the sender to the electricity sector also remains stable with a healthy coal stock left with CIL, it is not possible that the current crisis is caused by a lack of coal mining or shipping.
There is little evidence about the impact of rainfall Properly on mining and shipping too, “said analysis.
Furthermore, the electricity company may not want to save coal anticipate a decline in demand because Covid-19 or longer than anticipated, the analysis emphasizes that coal power plants have plenty of time and indication since January 2021 concerning how demand will increase.
“This raises a big question about the company’s ability to understand and project demand in a reasonable way.
It is very likely that coal plants expect other Covid-19 waves in September-October 2021,” he said.
However, according to researchers, the crisis can be avoided in both cases if there are reasonable predictions on request and timely absorption of shares by electricity companies.
“Contrary to popular narratives, this is not a coal crisis or crisis of coal capacity installed but the management crisis.
The new coal mining and power plants are not possible to solve problems, high-quality power demand projections and strict monitoring of coal stocks in power plants will divert Crisis like that in the future, “analysis concluded.
What was said by gradual decline in the stock of coal in power plants since April 2020 – India’s electricity demand was higher in 2021 compared to previous years – although there was a major contribution of renewable energy, power plants still faced the lack of cil production -Cil remains constant since April 2021-crisis can be avoided by reasonable predictions according to demand and absorption of timely stock by electricity companies