By Business India Editorial

India plans to reduce power generation from at least 81 coal-fired utilities over the next four years, the Union power ministry said in a letter, in an effort to replace expensive thermal generation with cheaper green energy sources, according to a report by S&P Global Platts.

In a letter sent to energy departments of state and Union governments on 26 May, it was noted that current regulations call for thermal power plants to generate at a minimum of 55 per cent, although generation can be reduced to as low as 40 per cent.

In an effort to reduce the cost of power delivered to consumers, the ministry selected those power plants with higher tariffs.

A reduction of 58 billion kWh in power will result from this, according to the letter, adding that it will save 34.7 million tonnes (MT) of coal and cut carbon emissions by 60.2 MT. Furthermore, about 30,000 MW of renewable energy will be needed to transition to this, the letter said.

With this, India will be one step closer to its goal of generating 500 GW of non-fossil fuel energy by 2030. Analysts, however, have called this goal ambitious and believe that India will have to take even bolder steps to meet its clean energy objectives.

With a total capacity of 203.35 GW, India has 173 thermal coal-fired power plants. This letter comes at a time when the country is struggling with a coal shortage, which pushed it into a power crisis in April, less than a year after it emerged from a similar crisis in October 2021.

On 30 May, S&P Global reported that India’s Coal India will procure coal for power stations operated by the federal government and state governments for the first time since 2015.