An aerial view of a train running on its tracks after Delhi Metro services resumed.
Highlights
- Power plants in Delhi may face coal shortage in the coming days, says Power Minister Satyendar Jain
- Satyendar Jain said that the coal shortage may impact 24-hour power supply in Delhi
- The disruption may even hit metro train, hospital services
Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain has expressed concern over a possible coal shortage in the national capital that may even hit essential institutions including metro train services, hospitals.
The Delhi government said that due to disruption of power supply from the Dadri-National Capital Power Station & Feroze Gandhi Unchahar Thermal Power Plant, there may be a problem with the 24-hour power supply to many essential institutions including Delhi Metro, hospitals.
"These power stations play an important role in preventing blackouts in some parts of Delhi and are also essential to ensure the continuous supply of electricity to DMRC, hospitals, and to the people of Delhi in the upcoming summer season," Jain said.
Delhi power minister held a meeting at the Secretariat in this regard and has written a letter to the Centre to ensure adequate supply of coal.
Meanwhile, India's peak power demand met or the highest supply in a day touched the all-time high of 204.65 GW on Thursday amid ongoing heatwave sweeping through vast swathes of the country increasing demand for electricity.
"During the current month of April, 2022 (Up to 28th April, till 14:50 Hours), peak power demand met has increased by 12.1 per cent to 204.653 GW from 182.559 GW during same period previous year," a source said.
On Tuesday, the maximum all India power demand met or the highest supply in a day was at the record level 201.06 GW. The peak power supply had surpassed last year’s maximum demand met of 200.53 GW on 7th July, 2021.
However, the power demand surpassed the supply as there was a deficit of 8.22 GW on Tuesday, according to the official data.
Similarly, there was unmet power demand of 10.29 GW on Wednesday even as the highest supply on that day was at 200.65 GW. The demand for power is expected to rise further in coming days as the weather department has predicted that heatwave sweeping through the country will intensify in the next five days.
The IMD has issued an "orange" alert for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Maharashtra, and predicted a rise of another two degrees Celsius in northwest region.
A heatwave spell will persist over northwest and central India during the next five days and over east India during the next three days, an India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast said on Thursday.
(With inputs from PTI)
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