India's top industrial state has taken the unusual step of asking factories to cut back on electricity use during evening hours, as surging power demand and critically low coal stocks at power plants strain the country's electricity supply.

Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state in western India, issued the appeal after a sharp rise in demand pushed its grid to the edge. The state utility Uttar Gujarat Vij Company Ltd has sent text messages to industries and citizens asking them to conserve power between 5 p.m. and 11 p.m., and factories have been urged to voluntarily shift production away from the evening peak.

Half of India's coal plants running critically low

The state-level alarm sits atop a national fuel problem. Half of India's 191 coal-fired power plants are operating with critically low coal inventories — enough fuel to generate power for less than three days — according to data from the Central Electricity Authority. The number rose to 96 plants as of October 19, up from 60 in mid-September, even as the coal ministry said last week it had ramped up supplies to power stations.

Total coal stocks at power plants have fallen about 5 per cent since the start of October, while daily peak electricity demand has been running 45 to 50 gigawatts higher than a year earlier.

Why demand is surging

The drivers are a perfect storm of weather and the calendar. Hotter-than-usual weather linked to El Niño has lifted air-conditioning demand, while a weaker monsoon cut hydropower generation by 20 per cent in September and forced farmers to lean on electricity for irrigation. Festive-season industrial activity added its own load. Coal-fired generation rose 13.3 per cent in September from a year earlier, yet the gap between power demand and electricity supply still widened to 560 million kilowatt-hours — the highest since August 2023.

India also faces a structural evening problem: it lacks enough batteries to store clean power generated during the day, so solar output collapses after sunset just as household demand peaks.

The state fights back

Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Tuesday chaired a high-level meeting with Energy Minister Rushikesh Patel and senior officials to review the crisis. The state has arranged short-term power purchases of 2,990 MW for October, 1,740 MW for November and 1,335 MW for December, and says the Union Coal Ministry has assured 10-11 railway rakes of coal daily until November, rising to 13-14 rakes a day after that.

Gujarat is also pressing consumers to move agricultural consumption into daylight solar hours and is expanding battery energy storage — 192 MW is currently operational, with contracts signed for another 2,742 MW of capacity.

The strain is not Gujarat's alone. Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh are all seeking short-term coal power through tenders, according to power ministry data. How long India can run its economy harder without running its coal piles down remains the question of the season.