Coal India Limited (CIL) has challenged contentions of the Railways and power companies on the loading and supply of coal to the country's different power units, 43 of which are currently identified as 'critical' and 25 as 'super critical' because of coal shortage.
A week ago a record number of 47 out of 73 power units in the country were identified as 'critical'. Power plants having coal stocks between 4 and 7 days fall in the critical category and those below four days are called super critical. Most of the critical and super critical plants are in northern and western India.
CIL currently has a stock position of 30 million tonnes, but with most of it lying in Orissa (MCL) and Jharkhand (CCL) the company does not know how to solve the problem.
A top CIL official said, "there is law and order problem in Jharkhand and Orissa and we are, therefore, keeping our fingers crossed as to how to meet requirements of the power companies. A situation has arrived when they will have to make arrangements through imports".
At a recent meeting held between the coal, power and railway ministries, CIL said comparison done between supply of coal during March 2008 and July 2008 was not fair. CIL said there could be no such comparison as July-August were rainy months when production dipped. CIL figures revealed that supplies rose 9 per cent over the same period the previous year. Loading of rakes during this period rose from 121 to 133 in July 2008 as compared to the previous year. CIL maintained it was meeting over 98 per cent of its annual action plan (AAP) for the power companies.
CIL chairman Partha S Bhattacharya claimed, “We have made everything transparent to the Railways and power ministry and have nothing more to offer. We are absolutely in the clear as we are meeting targets beyond capacities set in the AAP for power companies. Please try to find out, even after this why is the number of critical power plants increasing". However, production of CIL and Singareni Collieries fell from the targetted 32.4 million tonnes to 30.02 million tonnes during July 2008. One official said, “We admit of not doing enough at the ground level, but the proportion is not as bad that 43 power stations will fall critical because of us". CIL despatched 28.74 million tonnes of coal during July 2008 and also met over 114 per cent of requirement of NTPC. CIL accused power plants of generating beyond their projected plant load factor (PLF). CIL said power units with projected PLF of 80 per cent were generating at 98 per cent PLF using coal beyond limits.
CIL would like power companies to go in for imports to meet requirement. Currently the international price of non-coking coal was between $160 and $200 per tonne for Indonesian, South African and Australian coal.
Power companies were requested to import coal during the lean months of June to September which they avoided.
CIL recommended imports by power companies during lean months because in the October-March period, rail moved mainly foodgrain, fertiliser and sugar and there was shortage of rakes. This also hit imported coal movements and buyers turned to CIL for supply. CIL claimed that in 2007-08, power companies were given the target of importing 14 million tonnes of non-coking coal.
Power units imported only 8.04 million tonnes. During 2008-09 the target of import was 6 million tonnes but between April and July, power units imported 2.8 million tonnes. NTPC failed to meet coal import targets too. In 2008-09 the target was 2.75 million tonnes but NTPC, till now, had imported only 0.827 million tonnes.
In 2007-08, NTPC's import target was 3.63 million tonnes against which it imprted 2.758 million tonnes. CIL sent coal to NTPC through stock clearances.
