The Centre has ordered 112 captive coal-based power plants to run at maximum capacity from October 1 to December 31, in an emergency move to meet rising electricity demand.

The Ministry of Power issued the directive on September 25 under Section 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003, which allows emergency orders. It applies to plants with at least 50 megawatts of installed capacity.

The affected plants belong to companies including Vedanta, Tata Steel, Hindalco, JSW Steel, UltraTech Cement, Reliance Industries and Indian Oil, according to Reuters. The plants mainly supply their owners’ industrial operations, such as aluminium smelters, steel mills and refineries.

Generators must sell surplus electricity through power exchanges after meeting their own needs. They also have to report weekly to the Central Electricity Authority, giving details of generation, consumption, sales, available capacity and coal stocks.

The ministry acted because nearly 40 percent of coal-fired plants are running on critically low fuel stocks, while El Nino is pushing temperatures and power demand higher. It separately extended Tata Power’s Mundra imported-coal plant’s full-capacity order to December 31. The move is meant to keep the grid stable during the year’s final quarter.