Government data reported by Reuters has revealed that a growing share of India’s coal-fired power stations are running dangerously low on fuel, with close to 40% of them now sitting in critical territory. By this past weekend, 74 stations were down to under three days of coal on hand, a jump from 60 just seven days earlier, per figures from the Central Electricity Authority. This presents a notable problem for a country with a population of over a billion citizens.
Officials insist the underlying problem isn’t a lack of coal in the ground. Rather, snarls in getting fuel from mines to power stations have left plants in multiple states running low on critical coal supplies. That’s happening just as electricity use has been climbing nationwide.
The country’s per capita energy consumption jumped by a record 1,395 kWh in the financial year 2025 to 1,694 billion units from 1,622 billion units in the financial year 2024. This surge in electricity demand in India was projected to ease around September 2026 but this month has recorded very high peak energy demand rates.
No fuel source generates more of the country’s electricity than coal, and heavy monsoon rainfall through August slowed the flow of coal out of producer states, squeezing supply even as underlying reserves stayed abundant.
Earlier this month, the coal ministry confirmed the strain, noting that producers had begun accelerating shipments to plants whose reserves had slipped into dangerously thin territory. Officials say they are tracking every plant whose stock has fallen under a quarter of what it’s supposed to hold, and describe measures already underway to relieve pressure at the worst-affected locations.
Outside observers largely agree the bottleneck sits in logistics, not underlying coal reserves, despite the scale of the recent drawdown. That distinction matters because demand isn’t easing anytime soon.
India’s overall coal appetite is set to climb 4.2% this year, reaching roughly 1.35 billion tons. That’s according to the International Energy Agency’s midyear coal outlook, released last week. The increase would reverse a modest pullback the country saw the previous year.
The agency pointed to a mix of factors behind that growth: stronger electricity use nationwide, plus knock-on effects from oil and gas supply troubles tied to regional tensions near a key Middle Eastern shipping corridor. Both pressures are pushing India to lean more heavily on coal in the near term, even as the country works through its current stockpile squeeze.
This stockpile drawdown underscores how relevant key players like Frontieras North America Inc. in the global coal industry remain even as the world undertakes measures to transition away from fossil fuels like coal to renewable resources of energy.
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