Coal news and updates

Govt plans to ease coal usage rules in bid to improve supply

In a bid to improve fuel supply to coal-based power plants across India, the government is planning to come out with a policy to allow inter-state and inter-company swapping of coal.

To start with, the mechanism would first be allowed for state-owned NTPC Ltd, which has an installed capacity of 45,048 megawatts. The government estimates the policy could result in savings of around Rs.20,000 crore.

“As per policy right now, linkage at present is from one mine to a particular plant only and if that coal is not being used in that plant, then it cannot be used anywhere else. We also have some inefficient plants that are 30-40 years old and some that are running on 5-10% efficiency,” energy minister Piyush Goyal said. “We will now bring a policy under which the coal that is at 45 plants of NTPC is with NTPC (as a company).”

The policy would allow NTPC to use coal lying unused at one plant at other nearby locations.

The minister said a note will soon go to the cabinet on coal linkages and, in the days ahead, the power and fertilizer sector will have a different linkage policy. “This will ensure efficient use of coal for generating power. Our estimates show that just by allowing NTPC this relaxation, around Rs.9,340 crore would be saved. We are working on such innovative solutions to decrease the burden on the public as well as lower power tariffs,” Goyal explained, adding that the entities that have been allotted coal mines would be allowed to use the fuel across plants they own. The minister was speaking at an event by Western Coalfields Ltd.

Coal-fuelled plants, which produce 169,118 megawatts of power, account for 61% of India’s generation capacity. The country plans to mine 1.5 billion tonnes of coal by 2020.

Of this, 1 billion tonnes is from Coal India Ltd and 500 million tonnes from other sources, in line with the government’s push to raise the production of natural resources to boost economic growth. The fuel will play an important part, given that around 280 million Indians do not have access to electricity.

source: http://www.livemint.com