NEW DELHI: The Delhi administration has warned of a probable delay in delivering uninterrupted energy to critical facilities in the capital, including Metro trains and hospitals, as a result of a worsening coal scarcity.
Satyendar Jain, the Delhi’s Power Minister, convened an emergency meeting to review the situation and wrote to the Centre seeking that sufficient coal is made available to power plants supplying energy to the national capital.
“Due to the outage at the Dadri-II and Unchahar power facilities, a number of vital institutions, including the Delhi Metro and Delhi government hospitals, may experience issues with 24-hour power delivery,” a government statement stated.
At the moment, these power plants provide 25-30% of Delhi’s electrical needs, and they are experiencing a coal scarcity, Mr. Jain explained.
He stated that the administration was closely monitoring the situation and making every effort to guarantee that residents in certain regions of the capital would not experience power disruptions.
“These power plants are critical in averting blackouts in some sections of Delhi and in ensuring the uninterrupted supply of energy to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, hospitals, and residents throughout the next summer season,” the minister added.
Dadri-II and Jhajjar (Aravali) units of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) were developed largely to supply Delhi’s electricity needs. However, even with these power plants, there is a scarcity of coal, the statement continued.
The Dadri-II, Unchahar, Kahalgaon, Farakka, and Jhajjar power plants provide Delhi with 1,751 megawatts (MW) of energy daily. The capital receives a maximum of 728 MW from the Dadri-II power station and 100 MW from the Unchahar power station.
According to the National Power Portal’s daily coal report, all of these power stations are experiencing a severe coal shortage. This, along with a scorching summer, has resulted in blackouts in several regions of the country as governments struggle to meet record electrical demand.
Apart from increasing coal supply to power plants, the Union government has requested states to increase imports over the next three years in order to replenish stocks.
Thermal power plants throughout the country are experiencing coal shortages, signaling an impending power crisis, according to the All India Power Engineers Federation.
Edited By : Khushi Thakur
Published By : Shubham Ghulaxe
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