- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’S solar energy output witnessed a slump in September and it has happened at a time when the country’s coal-fired utilities are facing a shortage of a fuel that is responsible for more than 70 per cent of the its power generation.
According to Reuters which analysed the government data, growth in solar energy is critical this year since half of India’s 135 coal-fired power plants have fuel stocks of less than three days. India is likely to experience the coal shortage for up to six months.
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State-run Coal India, which accounts for more than 80 per cent of the country’s coal output, saw production growing at the slowest pace in six months and supplies at the slowest rate in seven months in September as heavy rain hit output in the country’s key mining zones.
Solar energy generation growth slowed to 24.7 per cent year-on-year in September from 41 per cent in August, an analysis of federal grid regulator POSCO’s (Power System Operation Corporation Limited) daily load information showed.
Other crucial sources of generation of electricity also fell last month, according to the data, with hydro declining five per cent and gas-fired power falling by more than 31 per cent compared to the previous year.
The seasonal changes in the pattern of India’s power consumption could also add to the stress on coal-fired utilities that have been hit by acute shortage and cause power outages, according to analysts.
“Renewable energy will not be available early in the day and immediately after sunset, when power demand generally peaks during winter in India,” a Singapore-based power sector analyst told Reuters.
Victor Vanya, director, EMA Solutions, a power analytics firm, said higher humidity in the coming weeks could see a rise in power demand driven by higher air-conditioning requirements and that would see a quick deterioration in the coal stocks.
“If humidity remains high in the next 2 weeks, there is a highly probability for India to end up in a ‘China-like scenario’,” he told Reuters.
In China, coal supply shortages have led to power restrictions in various parts of the country.
CRISIL, a subsidiary of ratings agency S&P, however, made a forecast of 15-16 per cent growth in solar output during the remaining months ending March 2022 and a slowdown in overall power demand growth which would lessen constraints on India’s coal-run power units.
