India burns through coal stockpiles in rush to ease power gap

India’s power plants are exhausting coal stocks as generators ramp up production to offset weak hydro and the evening drop-off in solar output, prompting the government to invoke an emergency rule to boost electricity supplies, reported Bloomberg.

The new rule has mandated companies with captive coal (stock for their personal use) generation capacity  of more than 50 megawatts to run the plants at full throttle and sell surplus electricity through exchanges. The rule applies to steel, fertilizers, oil refining and cement companies that operate in-house plants to power their factories.

Coal inventories at grid-connected stations have more than halved from a year earlier, plunging to the lowest in almost three years.Captive generation capacity is relatively small compared with independent coal plants, which supply about 70% of India’s electricity.

The news outlet said that the move follows some of India’s worst nighttime power shortages this year, after an El Niño-driven dry monsoon curbed hydropower generation while boosting electricity demand for cooling and irrigation. The shortage at night when solar power fades, reached 7.7 gigawatts this month, surpassing levels seen during this year’s summer heat waves. Coal plants filled the gap, “burning through fuel inventories”, the report said. 

India is on course for its driest monsoon in 17 years as a powerful El Niño curbs rainfall through the June to September season. The rain deficit has fallen to 13%, from 15% until middle of last week.

Heavy rains in coal-producing Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand have flooded mines and disrupted transportation, keeping pressure on inventories at power plants, the outlet noted. 

Coal stocks at Indian power plants are down 24% due to record September power demand coupled with low hydropower output, The IE reported.

The newspaper said peak power demand touched  269 gigawatts (GW) on September 10 — the highest ever recorded for September and just 1GW below the year’s peak of 270 GW seen in May. The outlet noted that stocks have declined by more than half compared to last year: on September 27 last year, coal stocks at domestic power plants stood at 43.1 mt, stocks this year were down by about 55.5%.

At least 72 of the 168 domestic coal-based power plants were also at critical fuel-stock levels. This means that their coal stock was below 25% of the normative stock — the quantity that thermal power plants are required to maintain to ensure adequate fuel availability for uninterrupted generation.  The government asked about 112 captive coal-fired power plants to operate at maximum capacity from October 1 till December 31, IE report said. 

Indian rupee drops to two-month low past key 96/USD barrier as oil worries deepen

The Indian rupee fell past the ​96 per dollar mark to touch a two-month low as oil prices ​continued to climb and hurt the net ​energy-importing economy, Reuters reported. 

Brent crude oil ​prices rose over ​1.5% to $107 per barrel as Iran continues to control oil traffic at Hormuz amid “disruptions driven by the US-Iran conflict” the report said. 

Rising oil prices have ​also pressured Indian equities ​and ⁠bonds, with foreign investors pulling out $3.7 billion so ⁠far ​in September. When oil prices rise, India needs more dollars to buy the exact same amount of oil which will require importers to sell rupees to buy more US dollars. A surge in demand for the US Dollar—coupled with an increased supply of Rupees being sold—drives down the value of the Rupee

100% tariff, Russian oil: Jaishankar meets Rubio, raises concerns about sanctions Act

In their first meeting since the United States enacted the Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act (SRIA), External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar raised concerns about the law with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in New York on September 23, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) high-level week, reported the Hindu.

President Donald Trump signed the SRIA into law in September 2026, authorizing up to 100% tariffs on countries that continue purchasing Russian oil and gas, as well as extending trade sanctions on Iran. India voiced economic and strategic concerns, noting that Russia accounts for a massive share of its crude oil imports and that the law threatens India's national energy security. 

Trump-Xi summit yields coal pledge as tariff talks extend

The White House said that China has agreed to import at least 10m tonnes of coal from the US in 2027 and again in 2028 as part of the outcome of the Trump-Xi meeting last week, reported Bloomberg. In a separate report Bloomberg said China can “easily” meet the target, making the “most specific pledge” of the summit an “easy promise to keep”. Chinese newsoaoer  Global Times reported that tariffs on China’s coal imports from the US will be included in the “$30bn for $30bn” reciprocal tariff reduction framework. China’s commerce ministry, said that coal imports from the US would be a “useful supplement to China’s domestic coal market while bringing stable revenue and jobs to the US coal industry”, said the news agency Xinhua. 

Bloomberg has published the list of goods the US and China agreed to cut tariffs on.

UK diesel prices hit record highs due to impact of Iran war

The motoring body RAC has announced that “the price of diesel at the pump in the UK has hit record highs due to the US-Israeli war on ​Iran”, according to Reuters. The newswire says diesel now costs 119.18p, beating the previous record set in June 2022. BBC News says, “Over the past seven months, the Iran war has severely disrupted the production and transportation of wholesale oil across the region, causing the price of fuels made from oil to surge.” It adds that the price of Brent crude is currently around $108 per barrel. The Times says “Andy Burnham will lobby Donald Trump not to impose a US diesel export ban, amid fears in government that it would lead to shortages at the pump”. BBC News reports that “the UK is in talks with US authorities over a potential stoppage of diesel exports and has started preparing for a ban”.

Germany sets out plan to phase out fossil fuels by 2045

Germany has published a “roadmap” committing to phase out fossil fuels by 2045, the plan combines independence, affordability and climate protection, Deutsche Welle reported.  

The Guardian said the plans include ramping up renewable energy from 55% to 80% of electricity generation by 2030, with an additional 12GW of onshore wind, and a target of 215GW of solar energy by 2030. The previously stated target of winding down coal use in the next decade, with a view to an exit from coal in 2038, was also reaffirmed, with the potential for an earlier target of 2035.” Germany is the third major developed economy to publish such a roadmap, after France and the Netherlands, the newspaper pointed out.

‘Dammit, something has to happen’: White House preparing plan for 90-day diesel exports ban

The Trump administration is preparing to ban exports of diesel for 90 days, despite splits with the oil industry, in a bid to bring down energy prices weighing on Republicans leading into the midterms, five people familiar with the discussions said, reported Politico.

According to Reuters the “US energy secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday said a US ban on ​diesel exports would not work and could push up gasoline and jet fuel prices”. 

The Financial Times noted that “industry groups representing the country’s biggest oil producers and refiners, as well as manufacturers and the wider business community” sent a letter yesterday urging Donald Trump not to go through with the ban. 

The Wall Street Journal said  that “shortly after Trump made his suggestion Tuesday, Mike Sommers, chief executive of the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s top lobby, issued a statement condemning the move”.