The Coal Crisis
- A. Mohamed Adnan
- Nov 21, 2021
- 6 min read
While the Indian Economy is picking up its pace, India's coal stations and power plants are running out of coal, causing the country to face a looming power crisis. States across India are issuing warnings of frequent power blackouts and are unable to meet fueling electricity demands.
Introduction:
Coal is a black or brownish black sedimentary rock that is formed as rock strata (coal seams). It has been used by humans for hundreds of years for heating up their homes and to power their machines like trains. The dead remains of the plants from ancient times were compressed by heat and pressure, which resulted in the formation of coal. And just like the ancient plants, even coal is eventually disappearing.
Industries still use coal in abundance for day to day manufacturing purposes. In fact, we still rely on coal for the production of electricity in thermal power plants. Even though technology has advanced to an extent where we use hydrogen fuels to propel us into space, humans still don’t seem to have the potential to let go of the root fuels that have helped technology advance so much.
The Crisis:
The excessive use of coal since the 1800's has now started to take a toll on the coal stocks. Countries like India and China are having a serious energy crunch as almost 108 out of 135 coal powered plants in India had less than 8 days worth of coal supplies left as of 10-10-2021. This might not seem like a huge issue considering the other sources for electricity production like nuclear power plants which tend to have a higher output, but what we don’t know is that lack of coal in our local reserves is going to directly hit our economy as coal has been used as the primary fuel source and thermal power plants as the primary production units of electricity.
A direct hit to the economy is the last thing any country would want as we are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many countries in Europe have seen a serious hike on fossil fuel prices, and this has spiked an increase in the price of electricity. In countries like the United Kingdom, civilians are on the verge of retaliation as most of the civilian fuel pumps have run dry. Even in India, the price of natural fuels like petrol and diesel has seen a rapid rise, the price of domestic petrol increased by over 46% and that of diesel increased by 45% in less than two years in the country. The prices of domestic coal remained unaltered in the country though. But the electricity prices touched 20 rupees per unit at its peak and have come down to almost 8 rupees by the end of August. This is still almost 50% more than the price of electricity before the coal shortage, which averaged around 2-4 rupees during the first week of August.
The energy shortage faced by Europe and Asia has yet to reach the United States. But most electricity providing companies in the US have warned the consumers about a potential hike in electricity prices in winter. Most analysts have warned about potential gas shortages as the US is expected to burn away another 23% of their coal by the end of this year alone.
Why Did This Happen Now Of All Times?
The main reason for this energy crunch is because of the rapid economic recovery rate across the globe after the pandemic that has prompted an excessive use of fossil fuels by most nations. The mistake made here is that no one expected such a serious depletion of the primary energy source in such a short period of time. The coal shortage issue is mainly faced by developed countries and the developing countries which have seen a major economic boom in the past few years.
Another reason why the extraction of coal is hindered is because of water logging in mines during rains. Ineffective output in many old thermal power plants also has reduced the output of electricity.
Many governments across the world have refuted the claim of coal shortage and in fact, they have kept it as a secret from the general public, but the rise in petroleum and electricity prices have further raised doubts about an imminent global energy crisis. It must be understood that electricity must be saved as a global blackout might be underway, and using vehicles for basic purposes should be reduced or in fact completely stopped in few cases. At the end of the day, saving electricity and gasoline is a way by which most people tend to save money, but it might also be very useful and beneficial for us until the leaders of the world find a suitable, sustainable and a stable solution to this sudden and unprecedented global issue.
How Is The Crisis Being Handled?
Rise in the prices of fossil fuels is in fact an indirect tactic used by the governments across the globe to curb the consumer's use of coal. When the fuel prices rise, very few people tend to use fossil fuel vehicles and services, which further reduces the demand for the fuel. This helps the government extend the deadline for the extinguishing of the fuel in coal - fired power plants. This tactic also has an environmental advantage as it reduces the rate of pollution. International analysts believe that the usage of electricity might reduce greatly as winter approaches, as many people will reduce the use of electrical appliances like fans and air conditioners. This might seem like good news as 70% of electricity is produced by thermal power plants which are again powered by coal , but this might not be entirely correct as people living in the Northern Hemisphere mainly use heavy electrical appliances like heaters during the winters. This might be bad news for the people living in and around the Tundra region as electricity prices might sky-rocket again, making it almost impossible for the people who suffered a massive economic blow during the pandemic to afford even basic electricity anymore.
In order to fight this energy crisis, The Union Ministry of Power in India has also come up with certain short-term objectives that might help overcome the crisis by a small margin. The Ministry redirected the 27 power plants that have a good supply of coal to redistribute the coal to the other power plants with shortages of coal. This helps free up almost 1.77 lakh tonnes of coal for the plants facing shortages.
Some states in the country have also agreed to turn to private electricity companies like Tata power and Adani power for the electricity needs of their states. Government run sectors like Coal India and Indian Railways have also been contacted to help in effective transport and distribution of coal to the critical and supercritical power plants in the country as Power giant NTPC - which is a state-run company - has stated an 23% rise in electricity generation rate over the past year.
If the factors which are under human control are rectified, we can still make do with the leftover supplies of coal for a certain amount of time to meet the electricity needs of the nation.
The Jump From Fossil Fuels To Renewable Energy Sources:
All the solutions World governments and Ministries are coming up with are either a gamble or short-termed remedies. If the human race wants to power their machines and homes, it’s about time we become more serious about renewable resources. These resources are fueled by nature itself, because of this they don’t pollute the environment like fossil fuel based inventions.
These resources don’t tend to have an expiration date like fossil fuels. Most renewable resources like solar energy and wind energy practically depend on the sun and won’t stop powering our devices till the sun burns out of hydrogen atoms. Even space travel tends to employ solar winds and solar energy to propel and stabilize our satellites.
The best part of renewable resources is that we have a variety of different options for different regions.
Solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy and hydropower have proven to be good alternatives to classical power plants. They tend to produce a good amount of electricity for day to day uses.
The Possible Drawbacks:
All the alternatives have proven to be highly efficient in day to day activities. But just like fossil fuels, even renewable resources have some drawbacks, like:
1. There are only specific locations where we can harness them.
2. The amount of energy produced is significantly less than the energy we obtain from burning fossil fuels and the area required to produce an equivalent amount of energy using renewable resources is much more.
3. The setup process tends to be more expensive.
However, we must not be bothered by these drawbacks at least for now as renewable resources have proven to be fruitful. More research on this topic will not only help in improving the quality of the apparatus used in the sector, but will also increase the output yield overtime.
How The Change Is Getting Accepted?
Many people have begun to accept eco-friendly options, this is clear with the uprising of electric car companies like Tesla and Faraday Future. The pollution caused by these electric vehicles is almost zero and also has better performance than classic gas vehicles.
"We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now we can control our future instead of letting the future control us."
Jimmy Carter
The jump from fossil fuels to renewable resources cannot be sudden, as the setup time and costs for renewable resources is high. But this coal crisis that hit the world must be a wakeup call as we cannot completely depend on fossil fuels anymore since they are soon about to go extinct, just like the ancient flora and fauna that gave birth to them.
Credits:-
Written by:- A. Mohamed Adnan
Edited by:- Fathima Ismail, Cassandra Rifflin
References:
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