Night-Time Power Cuts. Lack Of Thermal, Hydropower Capacity May Lead To Outages This Summer: Report

Solar farms have helped India avert daytime supply gaps, but a shortage of coal-fired and hydropower capacity risks exposing millions to widespread outages at night, according to report

India's power availability during "non-solar hours" this April is predicted to be 1.7 per cent lower than peak demand.

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Delays in adding new coal-fired and hydropower capacity can result in night-time power cuts this summer, reported news agency Reuters, citing government data and internal documents. The report said that solar farms have helped India avert daytime supply gaps, but a shortage of coal-fired and hydropower capacity risks exposing millions to widespread outages at night. 

According to an internal note by Grid Controller of India Ltd (Grid-India), India's power availability during "non-solar hours" this April is predicted to be 1.7 per cent lower than peak demand. The report said April’s nighttime peak demand is expected to hit 217 gigawatts (GW), up 6.4 per cent compared to peak demand recorded in April last year.

"The situation is a little stressed," Grid Controller of India Ltd (Grid-India) said in the note dated February 3.

Since Grid-India predicted a shortage of electricity weeks before the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted heat waves between March and May, the summer's electricity shortages could be worse than anticipated, the report added.

However, power secretary Alok Kumar told the news agency, “We are making capacity available to all states at competitive rates.”

Another senior government official said, the government brought forward maintenance at some coal-fired power plants and secured extra gas-fired capacity to run to try to avert outages after the Grid-India report came out.

According to Reuters calculations, as much as 189.2 GW of coal-fired capacity is expected to be available this April. That would be up more than 11 per cent from last year. Together, coal, nuclear, and gas capacity are expected to meet about 83 per cent of peak demand at night.

However, Grid-India has forecast peak hydro availability in April this year will be 18 per cent below last year when output was boosted by favorable weather conditions.

Hetal Gandhi, Director of research at CRISIL Market Intelligence and Analytics told Reuters that imported coal-based power plants would be required to crank up output to up to 55 per cent of total potential from 21 per cent in February, while domestic coal-fired units will have to increase output to 75 per cent of potential from 69 per cent in February. Hetal Gandhi said, "The burden of increased supply will definitely be borne by coal and gas.”

The report said that as of April last year, India’s solar power generation has grown 18 per cent. However, coal-fired capacity has grown only 9 per cent over the last five years.

Construction of as many as 26 coal-fired units with a capacity of 16.8 GW has been delayed by more than a year, data from the Central Electricity Authority shows, with some plants facing delays of more than 10 years, it added.

According to officials at power plants, projects under construction are being stalled by local protests over environmental concerns, legal challenges over compensation for land acquisition, and availability of labour and equipment. Hydro and nuclear power capacity additions face tougher obstacles, as they are hobbled by a lack of foreign investment and opposition from critics over safety and environmental issues, boding ill for power supply down the track.