The central government has deferred shut down of thermal capacity of about 10,000 MW for the next three months due to gas shortages across the country.
Generally, during this period of the year, about 20,000 MW worth capacity goes under maintenance but half of that has been deferred to meet the glut of roughly 8000 MW from gas-based plants, Piyush Singh, Additional Secretary of Power Ministry said in a press briefing on Friday.
He added that 55 Million Tonnes (MT) of coal will prove to be sufficient for next 19 days, but the Centre is planning on add an additional 3500 MW thermal capacity to meet demand. Gas-based demand is only 1.4% of total, Singh highlighted.
The Power Ministry has already issued Section 11 directions to plants which ensures power plants to run at full capacity. Further, on account of these directions, 4000 MW capacity has been added, the additional secy informed.
Gas-based plants like Torrent Power, are allowed to import own LPG. Focus has been maintained on capacity addition and coal availability.
Singh underlined that more than 75% of power supply in India comes from Thermal power plants and capacities of these plants have been increased. Although, capacity additions have also been made for solar, wind in last 12 years.
For this year, 271 GW in the anticipated peak demand, which the country is "fully geared" to meet, as per Singh. The requirement for coal has increased to 906 MT this year from 874 MT in the last year.
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Rising Coal Demand
Coal requirement for domestic coal-based power plants is estimated to rise 11.5% to 233 million tonnes in the first quarter of FY27, driven by higher electricity generation, people aware of the matter told news agency ET
For the full fiscal year, coal demand is estimated at 906 million tonnes, compared with the actual requirement of 826 million tonnes in FY26.
This rise in coal demand is reflective of projections of higher electricity consumption and the need to maintain adequate supply during peak periods, like the summer season.
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