States seek additional power as India faces night-time supply squeeze

New Delhi: Several Indian states are seeking additional power allocations from the federal government to avoid outages as weak hydropower output and maintenance at some plants have reduced electricity supply during the night, two federal government officials said.

Rajasthan and Gujarat, among India's leading renewable-energy states, have sought additional supplies, along with other states including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Union Territory Delhi, the officials said.

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The federal government typically has access to about 14 to 15 gigawatts of electricity from coal and hydropower plants that it can allocate to states during a shortfall.

But weaker hydropower generation following an El Nino-related decline in rainfall has tightened supplies available for redistribution, the officials said, adding the federal government has already given extra power to Punjab as the state suffered power outages of up to 14 hours per day in some areas in September.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to media. India's Ministry of Power did not respond to a request for comment.

The power squeeze highlights India's difficulty in meeting electricity demand after sunset despite a rapid expansion in renewable capacity, with insufficient battery storage limiting the ability to shift surplus daytime solar generation to evening and night hours.

POWER SHORTAGES SURGE

India's power shortages surged to 560 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) in September, the highest since August 2023, even as coal-fired plants increased output to meet strong demand.

Coal-fired generation rose 13.3% in September from a year earlier, while hydropower generation has fallen 20% from a year ago, government data showed.

The government is finding it difficult to meet states' requests because much of its available power has already been allocated, meaning additional supplies would have to be withdrawn from other states, one of the officials said.

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Several coal power plants are undergoing maintenance, while there has been weaker hydropower and wind generation leading to a power shortfall at a time of high industrial demand, said Rupesh Sankhe, a research analyst at Elara Securities.

Nearly 41 GW of power plants are offline, according to Grid India data. Also, about 47% of the coal plants had critical fuel levels, which equates to less than a quarter of mandated coal supplies.

The states also failed to adequately plan their power purchases for the year because they did not anticipate the summer extending this long, Sankhe said, adding electricity bought on exchanges has become expensive.

The power ministry has been pushing renewable-energy producers to accelerate the integration of battery storage systems to capture solar electricity that would otherwise go unused during the day, the officials said.