Overview
- Central Electricity Authority data on Sept. 2 showed 50 thermal plants with about 28.2 million tonnes of coal, equal to roughly 48% of the normative 58.7 MT requirement and about nine days of fuel at an 85% plant load factor.
- A plant is marked 'critical' when inventories drop below 25% of its normative level, a monitoring trigger that prompts priority action rather than an automatic shutdown.
- Officials and the coal and power ministries have set up daily inter‑ministerial monitoring, are prioritizing deliveries to short plants, and have asked some units to defer planned maintenance to keep generation available.
- Operators report rail rake shortfalls that limit coal movement to stations, and most affected units use domestic coal with four using imported coal and one running on washery rejects, which limits quick fuel substitution.
- Authorities expect conditions to ease as monsoon rains recede in September, but sustained high demand or continued logistics problems could squeeze generation and raise local reliability risks for households and businesses.