Rising Price of Imported Coal Sparks India’s Biggest Electricity Crisis

Smoke billows from two smokestacks at the coal-based Badarpur Thermal Station in New Delhi on April 6, 2015. India relies on thermal power plants for 54 percent of its electricity. MONEY SHARMA/AFP via Getty Images

India, the second-most populous country in the world, is facing an unprecedented electricity crisis due to a shortage of coal, which is disrupting the production of its thermal power plants.

India’s coal-fired thermal power plants account for nearly 54 percent of the country’s electricity generation capacity.