Rajasthan Gujarat Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu request central government power
Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu are running low on electricity at night and have reached out to the central government for extra power.
The main culprits? Less rainfall from El Nino-related decline in rainfall has hit hydropower hard, and ongoing maintenance at plants isn't helping.
Normally, the center steps in with 14 to 15 gigawatts of backup, but even that's stretched thin right now.
India records 560 million kWh shortfall
September 2026 saw India's power shortages hit a new high: 560 million kilowatt-hours short.
Coal plants tried to pick up the slack with a 13.3% boost in output, but hydropower dropped by 20%.
With big industrial demand and lots of plants offline or low on coal, it's a tough situation.
The government is now looking at battery storage to better use solar energy during peak times, basically trying to future-proof the grid so we don't keep running into these blackouts.