India is staring at a power crisis as thermal power plants see an acute shortage of coal. The number of thermal plants left with less than seven days of coal reserves has risen from 52 last week to 56 this week, government data showed on Wednesday.
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India’s 100 thermal power plants had enough coal overall to last six days on September 1, unchanged on week, the Central Electricity Authority said.
The stock levels are the lowest since mid-2012, when hundreds of millions of people were cut off in one of the world’s worst blackouts.
Less than three days of coal stocks is seen as super critical. Trying to allay fears, Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal assured that thermal plants will get ample coal supply.
Addressing the media, the minister said: “There has been a 9 percent growth in the production of coal in August 2014, which is a record production growth in any one month. Further the output of power from thermal or coal sources has gone up by 15.8 percent from April to July.”
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