Rains dampen the demand for power in India, causing the sharpest fall in October's output since COVID.
A government analysis showed that India's power production fell last month at its fastest rate since the pandemic. This was due to a combination of subdued industry and unusually rainy weather, which reduced electricity demand and cooling requirements.
Grid-India, the federal grid regulator, said that total electricity production in October was down 6% on an annual basis to 142.45 kilowathours (kWh).
Bhanu Patti, associate director at India Ratings and Research, said that the continued rain in many parts of India compared to last season led to a lower demand.
Debabrat Ghosh is the head of India at Aurora Energy. He said that because most festivals are in October, there is less demand for industrial power.
The growth in electricity consumption has slowed this year, due to an economic slowdown as well as heavy rains that have decreased cooling demand.
In October, the country's coal-fired power generation fell at its fastest rate since June 2020 when the COVID-19 epidemic led to a nationwide blackout, and overall electricity demand decreased.
Grid-India data revealed that coal-fired power generation, which accounts for 75% of India’s electricity production, fell in six of the 10 months of this year. This is the highest since 2020.
Grid-India's data shows that India's coal-fired electricity generation in October fell 13.2% on an annual basis, to 98.38 kilowatt hours (kWh).
Coal India has been hurt by the decline in demand in India for fossil fuels used for electricity generation. India is the world's second largest importer of coal.
Coal India, the company that accounts for three quarters of India's total production, experienced its worst quarterly profit drop in five years due to the tepid power demand this year.
In October, the company's coal production fell by 6% while its coal supply to power plants dropped 10%.
India's renewable power output soared by 30.2% to 19,75 billion kWh last month, compared with the same period a year ago. (Reporting and editing by Sethuraman N; Rashmi aich)
(source: Reuters)
