New Delhi, June 28 (TIWN) India is continuing to grapple with a "severe and protracted" power crisis after a sustained surge in global coal prices in late-2021 was further aggravated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, S&P Global Commodity Insights said.

The global price pressure eroded India's import volumes and reduced its power plant stockpiles to critically low levels just as an unrelenting heat wave pushed demand to unprecedented levels. The country generates more than 75% of its power from coal, and is the world's third-largest producer of electricity at 1,383 TWh/year.  The crisis is "so severe" that government authorities in India - the world's second-largest coal producer, importer and consumer after China - are "threatening to cut domestic coal supply to power plants that are reluctant to import coal at current elevated prices". The current deficit, the second such coal shortage since October 2021, was initially triggered by the sharp rise in global coal prices in mid-2021, S&P Global Commodity Insights said.