Several coal-based power plants defer maintenance to meet electricity demand | India News
New Delhi: Several coal-based power plants with a combined capacity of 10 gigawatts (GW) have postponed their scheduled maintenance by three months to meet the country’s power demand, while an additional load of up to 27 GW is expected at the distribution level due to a shift to induction-based cooking due to a conflict over LPG cooking at a military soup kitchen in the west. Asia on Friday, the government said.Piyush Singh, additional secretary in the power ministry, told reporters that 15 GW of capacity was initially planned for maintenance, to compensate for about 8 GW of gas-based plants lying idle due to supply shortages, and 10 GW to be operational to meet summer demand. Power plants take planned shutdowns for maintenance and cleaning of equipment. Earlier, state-owned oil companies also postponed the annual shutdown of their refineries due to the current geopolitical situation and its impact on energy supply.He also added that the power ministry is accelerating the addition of 22 GW of power generation capacity – a mix of thermal, solar, wind, hydro and batteries and pumped hydro storage – in the next three months.People are turning to induction-based cooking due to pressure in cooking gas cylinders, said Krishna Chandra Panigrahi, director general of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), which can create “excess demand levels” during morning and evening peak hours. He, however, added that it is difficult to estimate exact demand due to variation in consumption patterns across regions due to differences in climate, socio-economic conditions and cooking habits.“…Additional demand attributable to induction cooking ranges from 13 GW to 27 GW, under low and high consumption scenarios, respectively,” Panigrahi said, adding that a significant impact on demand is yet to be seen.With India’s peak power demand likely to reach 271 GW this summer, Singh said the system is “robust, well-diversified and adequately positioned” to meet both short-term and long-term demand, despite global uncertainty. “India’s current installed capacity of over 531 GW reflects a well-diversified portfolio, with significant contributions from coal, renewables, hydro and nuclear sources, with non-fossil sources accounting for more than 50%,” he said.Maintaining adequate coal reserves in thermal power plants and full operation of imported coal-based plants are among the short-term steps taken by the government to meet peak demand, Singh said.
