Delhi
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday tweeted that there was an urgent need to
take tangible measures to address the country’s massive
electricity problem amidst coal scarcity, after Delhi’s peak power
demand shattered records yet again on Friday, reaching an all-time high of
6,197 megawatts (MW).
“So
far, we have been able to manage somehow in Delhi. The situation is critical
all over India. Together, we must find a solution to this problem soon enough.
There needs to be quick and concrete measures taken to deal with this crisis,”
Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi on Friday.
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On
Thursday, the capital exceeded the 6,000 MW threshold for the first time in
April. At 3.31 p.m. on Friday, peak power consumption reached a new all-time
high of 6,917 MW.
Delhi’s
peak electricity consumption has clocked all-time highs for April six times
this month, each time beating the previous record in short succession. It was
5,735 MW on April 19th, 5,761 MW on April 20th, 5,781 MW on April 21st, 5,786
MW on April 27th, and 6,050 MW on April 28th.
Power
minister Satyender Jain in a press conference on Friday said, “There is a
severe shortage of coal in the entire country. The biggest reasons behind this
are lack of railway rakes. Due to acute shortage of coal, all plants across the
country are facing problems in generation.”
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“Normally
there is a backup of coal of more than 21 days to generate electricity at power
plants. But today only one day’s worth of coal is left in many plants across
the country. The situation in Delhi is also serious,” he added. Jain also stated
that a backup of at least 7 days of coal is required in order to keep the
plants running and also requested the Centre to provide the same.
The Delhi administration cautioned on Thursday
that it may be difficult to provide uninterrupted electricity to essential
facilities in the capital, such as Metro trains and hospitals, owing to
the worsening coal scarcity problems.
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After Jain’s speech on Friday, his counterpart from Rajasthan,
Ashok Gehlot tweeted, “Due to rising temperatures in 16 states of the country, the
electricity demand has increased and coal is not being supplied
accordingly, owing to which providing power supply as per requirement is not possible.”
Gujarat,
Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar are among the other states experiencing the
power shortage crisis.