The early entry of the South West monsoon into the country will provide a welcome relief from the scorching heat wave in large parts of India.

The rains, however, would inundate the coal mines and with lower coal stocks at thermal power plants, the country could face yet another power crisis in July-August.

“The data compiled from official sources suggest that the coal power plants are in no position to address even a minor spike in the power demand and there is a need to plan for coal transportation well in advance,” the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air’s (CREA) report on the coal crisis said.

The coal stock stands at 13.5 million tonnes (mt) at pithead power stations and 20.7mt cumulatively at all power plants across the country. The Central Electricity Authority of India (CEA) has predicted a peak power demand of 214GW in August.

“The onset of the monsoon will further hamper mining and transportation of coal from mines to power stations. If coal stocks are not replenished to adequate levels before monsoon, the country might be heading towards yet another power crisis in July-August 2022,” the CREA said.

“We were able to manage the April crisis but unless states ramp up their coal stock, we will be staring at power shortage again during the monsoon season,” said a senior official of the power ministry who did not want to be named.

Shailendra Dubey, chairman of the All India Power Engineers Federation, said the April crisis had happened because of a lack of co-ordination between different stakeholders — power, coal and rail ministries, state governments, discoms, and generation companies.