CHENNAI: North Indian states have suffered electricity cuts and face further outages because of a lack of coal, an analysis of government data and interviews with residents found, contradicting government assurances there is enough power.
The shortages in India - the world's largest coal consumer after China - follow widespread outages in neighbouring China, which has shut factories and schools to manage the crisis.
Over half of India's 135 coal-fired power plants, which in total supply around 70% of India's electricity, have fuel stocks of less than three days, data from the federal grid operator showed.
India's power ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Wednesday, the Indian Express newspaper quoted power minister R.K. Singh as saying: "There is nowhere that we have not been able to supply the quantity of power demanded."
Reuters analysis of daily load despatch data from federal grid regulator POSOCO showed India's power supply deficit in the first seven days of October amounted to 11.2% of the country's total shortages throughout the year.
The data is publicly available but the analysis provides a first concrete indication of the extent of the problem. Energy supplies are under strain globally as prices surge and demand and supply chains are strained by the recovery of consumption following lockdowns to contain the pandemic.
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