Power crisis looms amid worsening heatwave

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At the peak of summer, with most of northwest and central India broiling, the Delhi government on Friday warned that the power situation nationwide was grave. It flagged an "acute shortage" of coal, claiming that many power plants are left with only one day of stock. The country faces a power crisis amid worsening heat waves. On Friday, Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj recorded the highest maximum temperature in April in 20 years, as per an NDTV report. The extreme heat across the country is expected to persist for the next few days.

The rise in temperature and heatwave sweeping through the country has resulted in the growth in energy demand, with many states facing disruption in electricity supply. The Delhi government has even warned of a grave shortage of coal in India.

The April heat has become unbearable for many, including Samajwadi Party MLA Ashutosh Maurya who allegedly assaulted a power department employee and tore the office register, in Budaun district of UP, police said on Friday. An FIR has been against Maurya, who denied the charges and said he had gone to the electricity sub-station in the night after residents complained of an undeclared outage.

Meanwhile, hours of a power outage for the past several days has halted daily life and business of the locals in Jharkhand's capital city of Ranchi. "The business is being fizzled out, as every day we have to face an outage for 3-4 hours. I have a stationery shop with Photocopy machines. While I stay open for 14-15 hours, we can work only 4-5 hours due power cuts," said a shopkeeper on Thursday.

Congress spokesperson Rakesh Sinha on Friday blamed it on the BJP, saying that despite being in power in Jharkhand for 17 years, the party could not provide infrastructure, and accused it of corruption.

The Opposition party said the Centre's misgovernance and mismanagement led to this "artificial" crisis in the scorching summer. Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh alleged that the Modi government was not providing logistical support for coal distribution to power plants across the country, leading to the crisis.
He also claimed that 106 of the total 173 power plants are having less than 25 per cent of their usual reserve and states are being forced to buy power as high as R12 per MW.

Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain said there is an "acute shortage" of coal due to unavailability of adequate number of rakes and warned there may be "difficulty" in supply if power plants are shut.

The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), in response, tweeted that currently Unchahar and Dadri power stations, supplying power to the national capital, are running at full capacity and receiving "regular" coal supplies. However, Kejriwal claimed the power situation in the whole of India is very grave.

Tweet talk

@ArvindKejriwal, Delhi chief minister
‘There is a huge shortage of power in the country. So far we have managed it somehow in Delhi. The situation is very grave in the whole of India. Together we soon need to find its solution. Quick, concrete steps are required to tackle this problem'

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