India’s power demand-and-supply metrics stand at the crossroads after navigating two years of the Covid-19 onslaught and staring at uncertainty with fresh fears of Omicron. In comparison to the non-pandemic years (2018 and 2019), there has been significant growth in renewable energy (RE) generation.

       But for thermal power generation (coal + gas), which forms the backbone of electricity supply, growth has been underwhelming. For the period April-November 2021, RE generation had grown 29 per cent over the corresponding period in 2018 and 22 per cent over 2019. It had fallen ...