New Delhi: Half of India's 191 coal-fired power plants are operating with critically low fuel stocks due to a surge in power demand amid hotter-than-usual weather linked to El Niño, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing government data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

The number of plants with critically low coal stocks — plants holding only enough fuel to generate power for less than three days — rose to 96 as of October 19, from 60 plants in mid-September, the CEA data showed. The shortages are occurring even as India's coal ministry said last week that it has ramped up supplies to power plants. India's total coal stocks at power stations have fallen by about 5 per cent since the beginning of the month.

Daily peak electricity demand this year has been running about 45 gigawatts to 50 GW higher than a year earlier — yaani roughly the entire generating capacity of a large state added to daily demand — partly because weaker monsoon rains reduced hydroelectric output and increased reliance on thermal plants, Reuters reported.

In September, the gap between India's power demand and electricity supply increased to 560 million kilowatt-hours (yaani 56 crore units of electricity), the highest since August 2023, even as coal-fired plants increased output to meet strong demand. Coal-fired generation rose 13.3 per cent in September from a year earlier, while hydropower generation fell 20 per cent from a year ago, the CEA data showed.

India is adding renewable energy, with nearly 55 per cent of power generation capacity coming from non-fossil-based sources, but a lack of batteries to store clean energy is driving the country to depend on coal-based power during high-demand periods, Reuters reported.

Sources: Reuters (via The Hindu BusinessLine and Sowetan) — report of October 21, 2026, citing Central Electricity Authority data; Trak.in summary of the Reuters report.