India is facing a power deficit of nearly 7 GW (from 3 GW in early May 2014), as coal stocks at thermal power plants are depleting rapidly, power demand is rising due to a heat wave and the monsoon is behaving erratically. According to the Central Electricity Authority, total coal stocks in power plants have depleted from about 19 Mt a few weeks ago to 12 Mt; stocks would not be sufficient for even 7 days in 32 power plants, and of this, 19 plants have not enough coal to operate for four days. Due to limited coal supplies by Coal India Ltd (CIL) nearly 20 GW of new thermal capacities are remaining idle, contributing to the power deficit. The deficit could be aggravated by the El Niño phenomenon (expected to be intense in southern Asia in 2014) and by deficient rainfalls during the monsoon, which would limit filling up water reservoirs in hydropower dams and hydropower generation; inadequate monsoon would also result in higher electricity consumption for residential air-conditioning and pumps for field irrigation. As a result of the current power shortage, spot markets for electricity have doubled in the last few days.
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