India's coal-fired power generation growth slows in August, renewables up

NEW DELHI: India’s annual coal-fired electricity output growth rate slowed in August as renewable power generation rose amid rising demand, data posted on Grid-India’s website showed. The South Asian nation’s electricity generation rose 11.6% year-on-year to 180 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in August, as an extended heatwave and below-average rainfall raised demand for cooling while curbing hydropower generation, the data showed. Power generation from renewable sources, including solar, wind and small hydropower projects in August jumped 42.1% from a year earlier to 35.14 billion kWh. Coal-fired generation rose 11.3% year-on-year to 116.28 billion kWh after rising nearly 13% in July and about 14% in June, the data showed. 45 Indian coal power plants have critical low fuel, government data shows Last month India’s hydropower generation fell 16.7% to 21.5 billion kWh. Patchy monsoon rains also disrupted coal mining and supplies, pushing coal inventories at 46 power plants to critically low levels, government data showed. Even as solar and wind generation surge, non-solar-hour peak demand remains very high, driving coal usage, said Manoj Kumar, an analyst with Centre for Research on E