Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Several coal-based power plants with a combined capacity of 10 gigawatts (GW) have deferred their scheduled maintenance by three months to meet the country’s electricity demand, while an additional load of up to 27 GW is expected at the distribution level due to the shift towards induction-based cooking amid a squeeze on LPG supplies caused by the military conflict in West Asia, govt said on Friday.Piyush Singh, additional secretary at the ministry of power, told reporters that of the 15 GW capacity originally planned for maintenance, 10 GW will remain operational to compensate for nearly 8 GW of gas-based plants lying idle due to supply shortages and to meet the summer surge in demand. Power plants undertake planned shutdowns for maintenance and repair of wear and tear in machinery. Earlier, state-owned oil companies had also deferred annual shutdowns of their refineries due to the current geopolitical situation and its impact on energy supplies.He added that the power ministry is also expediting the addition of 22 GW of power generation capacity – a mix of thermal, solar, wind, hydro, and battery and pumped hydro storage – over the next three months.With people shifting towards induction-based cooking due to a squeeze on cooking gas cylinders, Krushna Chandra Panigrahy, director general of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), said this is likely to create an “additional layer of demand” during morning and evening peak hours. He, however, added that exact demand estimation is difficult, given the diversity in usage patterns across regions due to differences in climate, socio-economic conditions, and cooking habits.“…the additional demand attributable to induction cooking is broadly estimated to lie in the range of 13 GW to 27 GW under low and high adoption scenarios, respectively,” Panigrahy 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 that despite global uncertainties, the system is “robust, well-diversified, and adequately positioned” to meet both short-term and long-term demand requirements. “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 exceeding 50%,” he said.Maintaining adequate coal stocks at thermal power plants and full operationalisation of imported coal-based plants are among the short-term measures taken by the govt to meet peak demand, Singh said.
