Action plan in place to ensure adequate coal availability during monsoon

After witnessing a mismatch in coal demand and supply during the summer months, the Union ministries of power and coal have charted an action plan to ensure adequate coal availability during the monsoon season.

This is the period when the mining and supply of coal get impacted due to the heavy rainfall. The Union coal ministry is confident that till September-end, there will be 9-10 days of coal stock at the power units.

With hydro and renewable energy sources contributing more now, the Centre expects the coal situation to remain in control.

According to the action plan prepared by the ministry of power, 172 million tonnes (MT) of coal would come from domestic sources — Coal India (CIL) and Singareni Collieries — during the monsoon months. Additionally, there would be 15-16 MT of imported coal available with the power units, which exported coal.

An official said that as the calorific value of imported coal is higher, this quantity would be close to 20 MT.

Recently, CIL issued a tender for purchasing imported coal for power-generating companies (gencos) after the Centre directed it to meet the shortfall. CIL has called for bids to supply 2.4 MT of coal to be delivered for the July-September 2022 period. 

CIL has identified 26 beneficiaries for the imported coal, which includes independent power producers (IPPs) and states.

Sembcorp Energy, JP Power, Avantha Power, Lanco, Rattan India, GMR, CESC, Vedanta Power and Jindal India Thermal are some IPPs that have placed requests for imported coal.

States, which will receive imported coal for their generating stations, are Punjab, Gujarat, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.

Coal ministry officials said there is an additional 22-24 MT of coal stock available with CIL. This can be dispatched if the demand increases.

 “July onwards, hydro power, solar and wind power will contribute to the electricity supply. There is enough coal and we have urged the power units to stock up. CIL is confident of meeting its trajectory for coal supply,” said an official.

CIL said it produced 159.8 MT of coal as of Q1-end against 124 MT in the same period last financial year.

With the coal demand from power plants increasing due to summer and reopening of the economy, CIL said it supplied 153.2 MT of coal to the power sector.

UP to import Rs 1,100-cr coal for thermal plants

The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to import coal worth nearly Rs 1,100 crore to fire state-run thermal power plants owing to rising power demand and persistent coal supply bottlenecks. 

This has tilted the scales in favour of expensive coal imports. Sources said the proposed inventory of imported coal in this phase — about 0.55 million tonnes — would feed the thermal power plants for only two months (BS Reporter).