Essay on energy crisis

Worldwide energy crisis - Price rise in coal It's very shocking news that maximum thermal power plants do not have enough stock of coal....

Worldwide energy crisis - Price rise in coal

It's very shocking news that maximum thermal power plants do not have enough stock of coal. out of 137 thermal power plants of India, 72 power plants have coal stock for only 3 days and 50 plants have stock for just a week.

 These figures show that power plants do not have sufficient stock of coal. Now the question arises here " why does this critical situation occur "? It is mainly because India has stopped importing coal from foreign countries as a result of the heavy price rise of coal. India is now solely dependent on supply from coal India Ltd. And as imports stopped, supply of coal got affected and thus the production of electricity. For this sudden drastic change, neither power plants nor coal India Ltd. was prepared. But besides this reason, the following factors are also responsible.

1. In the period of the covid-19 pandemic, the major part of industries either stopped or minimized their production but after unlock, industries started 100% production so as to meet the increasing demand of commodities which raised the demand for electricity.
2.  This year monsoon of India lasted till September ending and many coal mines are filled with water (opencast mines - these mines are closer to the earth surface ) so becomes difficult to extract coal and despatch because of waterlogging in the concerned areas.
3. Earlier India was importing coal from Australia and China but now importing from Indonesia but because of the heavy price rise in coal, India has decided to stop importing coal from abroad. Now almost all thermal power plants are solely dependent on coal India ltd for the supply of coal.
4. During the pandemic, transportation of coal was comparatively easier because of less demand so power plants were maintaining coal stocks for 7-10 days only but as per rule, they should maintain stock for 22 - 25 days and now because of a sudden increase in demand of electricity, coal India ltd is unable to meet the demand.

Because of these four major reasons, the electricity crisis is likely to occur in India. Govt. of India is trying to take very concrete and hard steps to regularise the smooth supply of coal to power plants. And because of monsoon and pandemic, extraction of coal was hampered but whatever stock in hand will be sent to power plants.

But this is not the case in only India but many other countries are facing the problem of electricity crisis because of heavy price rise in almost all kinds of fossil fuel including coal, natural gas and crude petroleum products.

In Europe, the rates of natural gas have risen by 400% and electricity rates by 250%. The Chinese factories have reduced their production by 18%. Especially many cold countries would face more problems in the winter season because it requires more electricity or gas to keep houses warmer. At the same time shortage of coal also may affect industrial production as China and other southeast countries already reduced their production, which in turn, may affect scrutinizing manpower.

Worldwide reasons for the shortage of fossil fuel -

1. There exists a substantial decrease in investment for finding out resources and extraction projects of fossil fuel. Because of reasons like pressure on capital investors and different rules and criteria investment in projects of fossil fuel decreased up to 40% by 2015.

2. On a large basis, crude oil and natural gas sectors are dominated by a dictatorship ruled countries and many democratic countries transferring their govt. energy sectors to open market, therefore, prices of crude petroleum, coal and natural gas is also controlled by the open market.

3. There exists a lack of proper policy and infrastructure regarding extraction projects of fossil fuel.

Effect of fossil fuel shortage on different countries -

1. China -In many industrial sectors of China, there is power cut up to several hours and therefore many industries either stopped or minimized production.

2. Lebanon - Power stations like Al-Jaharani and Dir-Ammar were shut down. The military has started an emergency fuel supply.

3. The U.S.A- On Friday the price of one-gallon gasoline was 3.25 dollars which were merely 1.27 dollars.

4. Britain - In Britain, the price of gas is at its peak. Britain has a great reservoir of natural gas near its northern sea but currently, gas extraction has been stopped.

5. Southern East Asia - Prices of natural gas have risen by 84% which is the highest in the last 13 years.

Conclusion - 

Besides continues research and upgrading programs run by many countries to maximize the use of clean and pure energy such as solar, wind and hydropower, the use of fossil fuel as an energy resource has remained a key factor and till today we are largely dependent on it. we need to regularise and maximize the use of unconventional and renewable energy sources because the use of fossil fuel for energy needs is badly affecting our health and environment. Nowadays we are witnessing many man-made and natural disasters like increasing temperature, forest fire and floods across the globe. To date, we completely meet our energy demand from an unconventional and renewable energy source, we need to save a single unit of electricity and even a drop of fuel. We need to adopt a natural lifestyle, switch off something whether it is an electrical appliance or the engine of a car. Here every single and little contribution matters. After all " Energy saved is Energy produced ".

Source: The Dainik Bhaskar.