Coal news and updates

Given the kind of slippages in capacity additions during the twelfth plan, the government has begun an early move to tie-up coal worth 228 million tonnes to put up fresh power capacities at 66,000 mw during 2017-22.

 

A major chunk of this coal demand would be met through incremental output from state-run Coal India (CIL). Apart from its existing commitments, coal ministry has undertaken to provide 144 million tonnes through CIL and its subsidiaries for the power sector. This will account for 80 per cent of 180 million tonnes additional coal output from CIL envisaged during thirteenth plan period.

 

Coal secretary SK Srivastava chaired a meeting last week to broadly plan for coal required by power sector during the 2017-22 period. Senior officials from planning commission and power ministry were also present at the meeting convened for an early estimate of coal during the thirteenth plan period.

 

According to the indications, government will have to find extra coal to fire at least 14,000 mw fresh capacities being added during next plan period. “Either coal for these capacities has to be imported, coal assets have to be acquired abroad or make additional efforts to push up domestic output” said a coal ministry official who did not wish to be identified.

 

Out of the coal required for the thirteenth plan, about 100 million tonnes would be met through incremental output from captive blocks held by both private companies and state-run power companies. This coal will suffice to run about 20,000 mw capacities.

 

So far coal ministry has provided coal linkages for power projects worth around 20,000 mw that are expected to take off during the thirteenth plan period.

 

Out of the rest 26,000 mw for which coal is required, 12,000 mw would be supported by CIL from its incremental production output and the government is in the process of tying up fuel requirement for the rest 14,000 mw.

 

The government also plans to bring 14 coal blocks allotted to both private and public sector companies under production by mid-thirteenth plan. It includes four large blocks assigned to state-run NTPC including the Balumuda, Bani, Cchandrabila and Kuda Nali Luburi, which can support 9,780 mw fresh power capacity.

 

But, power ministry officials are not very confident that these 14 blocks will come into production during the thirteenth plan period given their past experiences especially with delay in environment and forest clearances apart from over two dozen approvals for each of the blocks.

 

Even as per government data, at least projects worth 20,000 mw to be implemented in the present plan period ending 2017 may not happen and there would be serious slippages.

 

Moreover, power ministry officials are cagey about coal requirement projections for a 1000-mw power plant by the coal ministry. They pointed out that coal linkage given for 1000-mw power project run on super-critical technology at 85 per cent plant load factor before 2009 was 4.9 million tonnes per annum.

 

This has been reduced to 3.8 million tonnes per annum for projects beginning 2010 while the actual requirement was 5.2 miillion tonnes per annum to fully utilise the installed capacities.

 

HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh last week suggested outright privatisation of behemoth Coal India as one option to bring in additional capacities in coal production to meet the power demand.

 

Gurucharan C Das, who serves as operating advisor at ChrysCapital, has also pushed for CIL’s privatisation as a way to meet India’s growing coal demand across sectors.

 

Source: http://www.mydigitalfc.com/