'Less than a day's coal left,' warns Delhi government
Delhi is staring at a power crisis in the sweltering heat as the Aam Aadmi Party-led (AAP) government warned of disruptions in power supply to several crucial services on Friday. CM Arvind Kejriwal said India's power situation was grave but his government was somehow managing the crisis. It said key power plants were left with coal supplies that would last less than a day.
- Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain on Friday said 25-30% of Delhi's electricity demand is met through Dadri-II and Unchahar power stations.
- These play a crucial role in supplying power to hospitals and Delhi Metro. However, they're witnessing a coal shortage, which may interrupt the supply to such essential services.
- Moreover, Delhi is reeling under an intense heatwave with the maximum temperature touching 45 °C.
Jain further said India was facing an acute shortage of coal and "many places have just one day of coal left when they should have at least 21 days of reserve coal." Asserting there were no payment dues from the AAP government's side, he urged the Centre to increase Delhi's coal rack allocation. Jain also blamed the lack of coordination for the power crisis.
Soon after Delhi's AAP government said there could be disruptions in electricity supply to hospitals and Delhi Metro, Kejriwal tweeted, "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," the Delhi chief minister tweeted in Hindi.
देश भर में बिजली की भारी समस्या हो रही है। अभी तक दिल्ली में हम लोग किसी तरह से मैनेज किए हुए हैं। पूरे भारत में स्थिति बेहद गंभीर है। हम सबको मिलकर जल्द ही इसका समाधान निकालना होगा। इस समस्या से निपटने के लिए त्वरित ठोस कदम उठाने की ज़रूरत है। pic.twitter.com/aYQVVZBUOy
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 29, 2022
To meet Delhi's power demand, the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) had established the Dadri-II and Jhajjar (Aravali) power stations. The Dadri-II, Unchahar, Kahalgaon, Farakka, and Jhajjar power stations supply 1,751MW of electricity per day to Delhi. While the Dadri-II station supplies a maximum of 728MW, the Unchahar supplies 100MW. The government said very little stock of coal is left at these crucial plants.
Meanwhile, the Indian Railways on Friday canceled some passenger train services to enable quicker transportation of coal carriages, Bloomberg reported. As many as 164 trains were fully canceled, while 33 trains were partially canceled on Friday. The Indian Railways has reportedly said that the measure is only temporary and passenger train services will be restored as quickly as the power crisis situation normalizes.
