India faces power outages in the coming months due to a coal shortage and an increase in demand after the pandemic, the energy minister said in the press on Tuesday.

“Usually demand starts to decline in the second half of October (…) when (the climate) cools“said Minister RK Singh in an interview with the daily Indian Express.

“But it’s going to be a bit of a hit and miss“Singh said and called on the demand for electricity”gigantic“.

“Demand will not go away, it will increase (…) We have 28.2 million new consumers. Most of them belong to the lower middle class and are poor, they buy fans, lamps, televisions”, he explained.

70% of the electricity produced by coal

However, India’s energy minister insists that the government is working hard to avert a crisis and says that for now “There is no place where we could not deliver the requested amount of energy.”

India’s coal-fired power plants had an average of four days in inventory at the end of September, the lowest level, according to Bloomberg News.

More than half of the plants are on alert and the government is developing guidelines for the possible recommissioning of inactive plants.

Coal accounts for nearly 70% of India’s electricity production and nearly three-quarters of fossil fuels are mined in the country.