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Monday, September 1, 2014

Blackouts In India -- Lack Of Coal -- September 1, 2014

Facts and Figures

From the EIA, August 14, 2014: India is increasingly dependent on imported fossil fuels as demand continues to rise.

Data points:
  • India's dependence on imported fossils fuels as of 2022: 38% of total consumption
  • India: 4th-largest energy consumer (behind China, the US, and Russia)
  • India: 3rd-largest economy based on purchasing power
  • India: world's 2nd-largest population
  • natural gas: India did not import any natural gas until 2004
  • India: 4th-largest importer of natural gas (behind Japan, South Korea, and China); mostly from long term contracts with Qatar
  • coal is India's primary source of energy; world's 3rd-largest importer of coal
Updates

December 24, 2016: could India be the growth engine for growth in Asia? -- Platts.

March 15, 2016: India's oil demand: on the verge of take-off -- The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, March 2016. Blog posting here

November 9, 2015: GE to invest heavily in India to build diesel locomotives, probably to move coal.
 
Original Post

Bloomberg is reporting:
Blackouts in India widened as inadequate coal supplies forced plants to shut down, after increased industrial activity and a monsoon deficit boosted electricity demand from factories and households.
The national peak shortage yesterday expanded to more than 6 percent from the 3.9 percent average in July, according to data from the Power Ministry and Power System Operation Corp., a unit of Power Grid Corp. of India. Stocks at power stations run on local coal plunged. Equipment breakdowns or maintenance also caused other plants to be under shutdown, including ones operated by Tata Power Co. and Adani Power Ltd.
A surge in economic activity has led to higher demand for the fuel, exacerbating supply bottlenecks caused by heavy rains at some mines and slow railway transport in places. India’s economy grew at the fastest pace in more than two years, the Central Statistical Office said in a statement in New Delhi yesterday. Slow economic activity had caused coal stocks at power plants to swell last year.
Later: I was going to explain the purpose of this post, but then got interrupted. See first comment/reply below.  And I just remembered something. I will add another reply.

3 comments:

  1. What does this have to do with anything?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sometimes I get rushed; in this case I was in the middle of putting this post together when I was invited by my granddaughters to go rock-climbing -- so off we went.

      I had planned to explain this post but was, thus, interrupted. I forgot all about it, so I'm glad you took the time to write, give me a reason to explain.

      Over at "big stories" (http://themilliondollarway.blogspot.com/2013/05/big-stories.html), I follow some of the other "big stories" that interest me. Most of them have to do with energy which helps put the Bakken into perspective. Others have nothing to do with the Bakken directly but are connections that could be made if one wanted; I just generally don't have the time to point out the dots I'm connecting.

      My "welcome/disclaimer" post explains the background to the blog and might provide some insight to what gets posted.

      In this particular case, over at "Big Stories," I have something I call "natural gas and coal in a post-nuclear world." I needed a post on India because until today I had never linked the India bullet to a post.

      More importantly, the blog is really about the interest in my home state, and I post a lot of non-energy North Dakota stuff on the blog: Katie Ledecky; agriculture; honey bees; etc.

      By the way, North Dakota is also a big coal state. In 2013, 79% of North Dakota's net electricity generation came from coal, almost 16% came from wind energy, and about 5% came from conventional hydroelectric power sources (source: US EIA).

      I was going to put some of this information in the post above when I got back from rock-climbing but now I don't have to. Oh, one other thing, several readers have sent me stuff on coal suggesting some are interested. (Another long story.)

      This post will "disappear" in a day or two and will not be seen except through serendipity or googling. But it will be linked over at the "Big Stories."

      I think I started the "Big Stories" with the Netflix post and the Japanese tsunami post, but I've long forgotten. The purpose of the "Big Stories" is to remind myself to check in on other issues periodically; I use a lot of different methods on the blog to help me remember to check in on some things. For example, I can't recall if I have "drones" in any of the big stories, but I could.

      But enough of this. I get to take our younger granddaughter to soccer in a few minutes. She now plays on three teams. To play on one team in this area is the norm; some of the better players (she is 8; the youngest in her "league") are asked to play on a second team; rarely have I heard of a player in this area being asked to play on three teams. (She was a "walk-on" to boot.) Her dad is concerned that this might be too much for her, but I think the coach will watch out for her.

      Hope this helps.

      Delete
    2. I guess I forgot the biggest reason for posting this on coal and India. I have a whole "section" in the blog that concerns President Obama's "war on coal." How could I forget? Wow? That's how this all started. Wow, so much to write. The dots were probably easily connected by other readers, and I completely missed this one -- why this item got posted. Anyway, multiple reasons.

      Delete

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