As coal stocks dried up in several major power plants-including those owned by staterun NTPC-India's northern parts faced a severe power crisis, with official reports pegging the shortage at 5,323 MW during peak hours on Friday.
According to data released by the Central Electricity Authority on Thursday, three power plants in the northern region — Badarpur, Indira Gandhi Super Thermal Power Plant and Anpara — had coal stocks that wouldn't last a day.
While the first two are owned by the NTPC, the Anpara power plant is run by the Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd.
The Indira Gandhi STPP in Jhajjhar, which is a joint venture between the NTPC and the governments of Delhi and UP, supplies electricity to Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Telangana among others.
Besides these, NTPC's 2980 MW Sipat power plant in Chhattisgarh had nil coal stocks while the company's Vindhyachal TPS in Madhya Pradesh had stocks worth a day, as on Thursday.
To further exacerbate the country's power woes, coal stocks were in the red-sufficient for only 03 days-at 29 out of the 100 power plants monitored by the CEA across the country.
Of these, six had nil coal stocks as on Thursday, when the latest CEA data was released.
The country's northern region has been facing gaps in power supply during peak as well as non-peak hours.
According to data released by the Northern Regional Load Despatch Centre, the apex body to ensure integrated operation of the power system for the region, power supply on Friday fell short by 5,323 MW during peak hours.
While the peak hour’s demand at 8 p.m. stood at 50, 610 MW, supply remained restricted at 45,287 MW.
Even nonpeak power supply struggled with a shortage of 3,128 MW against a demand of 47,128 MW.
