Several Indian states are asking the Centre for extra power to avoid outages, as weak hydropower and plant maintenance cut electricity supply at night.

Reuters quoted two federal officials saying Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi have sought additional allocations. The Centre typically has 14 to 15 gigawatts it can hand out during shortfalls.

Weaker hydropower after an El Nino-linked rainfall decline has tightened the supply available for sharing. The Centre has already given extra power to Punjab, where some areas faced outages of up to 14 hours a day in September.

The squeeze shows India’s difficulty in meeting demand after sunset despite fast growth in solar power. There is not enough battery storage to move daytime solar surplus into the night.

The power ministry did not respond to requests for comment. The issue is expected to dominate energy planning through the winter demand season.