Will reimpose emergency law if needed to meet power demand: Power Minister RK Singh

Gratuitous load-shedding by discoms will not be acceptable and will be subject to penalty in case of a complaint. RK Singh said. (File image)

The Union government will not hesitate to import coal or impose section 11 of the Electricity Act, if needed, to meet the country's rising power demand, Power Minister RK Singh said on February 1 in an interaction with reporters in New Delhi.

Singh, when asked about the preparation to meet the impeding peak electricity demand this summer, said the government will ensure there are no supply disruptions this year due to coal shortage or its logistical issues.

"There is no question of there being any disruption in electricity supply. If I need to import coal, I will do so. There is not going to be any shortage of coal. If I need to blend, I will blend. I am firm on this decision. Blending has been happening since at least 2009. So, I have no hesitation at all in blending imported coal at thermal power plants," Singh said.

The minister said gratuitous load-shedding by distribution companies (discoms) will not be acceptable and will be subject to penalty in case of a complaint lodged by a consumer.

"As far as Section 11 is concerned, if there is a need I will pass the law. But, I am also not going to have a situation where the energy price will increase five fold. Yet, there will be no shortage of electricity," he said.

On May 5, 2022, when the country’s power demand had suddenly soared and thermal power plants had inadequate domestic coal to run fully, the power ministry invoked an emergency clause of the Electricity Act (section 11) and asked all thermal power plants running on imported coal to open and generate to their full capacity. At that time, most of these imported coal-based thermal power plants were shut due to high International coal prices and also because their power purchase agreements (PPAs) did not have adequate provision for pass-through of the increased cost of generation. But, after the order, they had to mandatorily restart operations.

This order was initially supposed to be valid till October 31, 2022. But, it was later extended to December 31, 2022.

On January 9, Moneycontrol first reported that the government had lifted Section 11 of the electricity act for the time being and that the power minister had plans to reimpose the emergency clause if needed in the impending months.

On January 3, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) ordered that plants that ran on imported coal under the emergency clause should be compensated for supplying electricity under emergency circumstances. The order, though was issued in response to a petition filed by Tata Power Company Limited (TPCL), is expected to benefit power plants with a combined capacity of about 17 gigawatt (GW).

Moneycontrol asked Singh about the impact of the CERC order, to which he replied that the matter is being examined by experts in the ministry.

The government is preparing to meet a projected peak electricity demand of 230.144 gigawatts (GW) in FY 2024, Power Secretary Alok Kumar told Moneycontrol in November 2022.

In April-May, 2022, many states in the country faced hours of outages because of an unrelenting surge in power demand due to a sudden heatwave, rapid economic recovery and shortage of coal to generate power.