Production of coal, the fossil fuel that accounts for more than 70% of India's electricity generation, has failed to keep pace with unprecedented energy demand from the heat wave and the country's post-pandemic industrial revival. Power curbs will also hit India's already faltering rebound in industrial production. High coal and oil prices threaten to add to inflationary pressures that prompted India's central bank to make a surprise move Wednesday to lift its key policy rate.
'It's becoming a difficult situation,' Sumant Sinha, chairman of ReNew Energy Global Plc, a supplier of wind and solar power in India, said in an interview.
A power crisis in India that's delivering hours-long blackouts, halting manufacturing lines and triggering street protests is forecast to continue for months, adding pressure on the nation's economic rebound.Įlectricity outages and curbs have spread across more than half of all states and the nation's coal-dominated energy system is expected to come under further strain as power demand tops a recent record high in the coming weeks.Įven with a temporary reprieve from a blistering heat wave that's delivered temperatures as high as 46 degrees Celsius, households and businesses face ongoing disruptions as coal stockpiles shrink at power plants and fuel imports falter on prices that've surged since the war in Ukraine.
