India's power crisis: The devil lies more in the cost than in the crunch

New far-off plants are costlier and start supplying power much after the older ones have been run at peak. This summer, despite the call to phase out plants over 25 years, they've proved their worth

By Monday, May 9 evening, power engineers at India’s National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC) in New Delhi ought to have been worried. Demand for power had shot up by 10 Gw in just 24 hours. For comparison, the scale of rise meant India’s power demand had added two Sri Lankas in one day.

However, the evening turned out to be uneventful. For the women and men managing India’s power management business, this summer has been a time of adroit lessons in power management. And it is not just those in NLDC. Coal India managers and railway freight operations have all