India's power shortage nears zero on Oct 25, 2026 as electricity demand cools
India's all-India energy shortage fell to 0.01 million units (MU) on October 25, 2026, from 40.5 MU on October 6. Lower demand closed the gap, not extra supply.
A data update from FactIQ, written from Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation India figures. What is FactIQ?
Key figures
- All-India electricity shortage, October 25, 2026
- 0.01 MUdown from 40.5 MU on Oct 62026-09-082026-10-25India Energy shortage - All India
- All-India electricity supplied (energy met), October 25, 2026
- 4,733 MUdown 5.3% from the day before and about 14.5% below the Oct 5 high of 5,533 MU2026-09-082026-10-25India Energy met - All India
- All-India coal-fired generation, October 25, 2026
- 3,755 MUdown about 10% from 4,168 MU on Oct 142026-09-082026-10-25India Gross generation, Coal - All India
- All-India power plant capacity out of service (total generation outage)
- 40.7 GWup from 35.4 GW on Oct 222026-09-082026-10-25India Generation outage, total - All India
Shortages have almost disappeared since early October
Energy shortage is the electricity that consumers demanded but the grid could not supply. Grid India's daily data show it was measured in million units (MU), which are million kilowatt-hours.- All-India energy shortage: 0.01 MU on Oct 25, against 40.5 MU on Oct 6 and 31.3 MU on Oct 14.
- The shortage has stayed under 0.5 MU every day since Oct 18.
- Shortage at peak demand in non-solar hours was 0 megawatts (MW). On most days from Oct 6 to Oct 14 it was about 4.7–4.8 gigawatts (GW).
Lower demand, not more supply, closed the gap
- All-India energy met, which is the electricity actually supplied, was 4,733 MU on Sunday, Oct 25. That is down 5.3% from the day before and about 14.5% below the Oct 5 high of 5,533 MU.
- Over the same period, energy met in the Northern Region fell from 1,637 MU to 1,235 MU.
- Maximum demand met was 217.4 GW, the lowest since Sep 27. It was about 260.7 GW on Oct 5 and Oct 8.
Coal burn is easing, but other sources are falling faster
- Coal generation was 3,755 MU, down about 10% from 4,168 MU on Oct 14.
- Coal's share of total generation still rose to about 73%, from about 71%.
- Generation from gas, naphtha and diesel was 42.6 MU, down from about 180 MU in early October. This fits with costly gas plants being switched off once the shortage passed.
- A lower daily coal burn should give power plants room to rebuild their depleted coal stockpiles.
Supply remains weak
- Hydro generation keeps falling with the season. It was 316 MU, against 555 MU on Oct 6.
- Solar generation was 595 MU, against a high of 726 MU on Oct 8.
- Estimated wind generation was weak at about 148 MU.
- Total generation outage, which is the capacity of power plants out of service, rose to 40.7 GW from 35.4 GW on Oct 22.
Source: Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation India. See all MOSPI data in FactIQ.
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