Fortune
India, the world’s fourth-largest energy consumer, is facing a crippling power crisis.
On Thursday, India’s Central Electricity Authority (CEA) warned that coal reserves at over half of the country’s power plants could burn out in three days or less as a post-pandemic surge in manufacturing spiked demand for power and caught power producers off guard.
“Nobody thought that the industrial demand would pick up so quickly, so power stations did not bother to replenish their coal inventory,” says Nitin Bansal, associate director at India Ratings and Research. “But now stocks are depleting day by day.”