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India will defer maintenance shutdowns at thermal power plants and operationalise additional capacity to ensure around 10,000 MW of extra supply during peak summer demand, the Ministry of Power said on Friday, as it moved to strengthen short-term electricity availability amid global uncertainty. Power plants have to annual take a shutdown for maintenance and repair of wear-and-tear in the machinery but this has been posted to make available electricity to meet peak demand, said Piyush Singh, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Power, at a media briefing. This will help augment 10,000 megawatt (MW) of generation, which will more than compensate for the 8,000 MW of generating capacity lost because of disruption in liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies due to the war in West Asia, he said. Also, imported coal-based plants are being fully operationalised and adequate coal stocks are being maintained at thermal stations to address near-term supply pressures. India's electricity syste
The world's major cities are now experiencing a quarter more very hot days every year on average than they did three decades ago, according to a new analysis published on Tuesday. Researchers at the UK-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) examined temperature data from 43 key cities, including the 40 most populous capitals, dating back to 1994. They found that the number of days above 35 degrees Celsius (very hot days) in these cities rose by 26 per cent over the 31-year period, climbing from an average of 1,062 annually between 1994 and 2003 to 1,335 between 2015 and 2024. Delhi, one of the cities where the population has grown by at least half since 2013, is among those facing worsening heat stress. The analysis warns that residents of informal settlements in cities such as Delhi are particularly vulnerable to sustained high temperatures because of poor housing and infrastructure. The study shows 2024 recorded the highest number of very hot days,