Coal news and updates

IMC meet on Dec 6 to draft policy for washery rejects-based units

December 3: The first meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) to formulate a policy on coal/rejects allocation to power plants run on washery rejects would be held on December 6 in New Delhi, an official from the Ministry of Coal said.

The meeting was to be held on December 5, but has been postponed by a day, the official added.

A nine-member committee headed by Additional Secretary (Coal) was formed in July this year with representatives from Coal India Ltd, the Power Minister and Planning Commission.

The committee was to assess the actual coal demand of washery rejects-based power plants and formulate suitable guidelines for issue of long-term coal linkages for these power plants, keeping in view the overall availability position.

It will also assess the actual rejects generated from CIL's washeries and formulate suitable guidelines for supply of rejects on a long-term basis from such washeries.

Incidentally, a total of six power plants with a combined capacity of 543 MW, to be run by washery rejects, had requested for coal as supplementary fuel. These power plants are Aryan Coal Benefications Pvt Ltd, Korba (30 MW), Gupta Energy Pvt Ltd (2 x 60 MW), ACBIL, formerly Aryan Coal Benefications Pvt Ltd, (2 x 135 MW), S V Power Pvt Ltd (1 x 63 MW), Vandana Energy & Steel (Pvt) Ltd ( 1 x 35 MW), Maadurga Thermal Power Co Ltd, Cuttack (2 x 30 MW).

Of the above six plants, the first five were commissioned before 2012 while the last one is to be commissioned in 2013-14, the official said.

Incidentally, a meeting of the Standing Linkage Committee (Long Term), in January 2010, had recommended for allocation of coal as supplementary fuel based on the proposals received from the Ministry of Power, but the final decision was not taken for want of a discussion paper from CIL, the official said.

Till now, the rejects generated in the washeries operated by CIL were either used in the captive power plants of coal companies or sold through the e-auction route.

CIL, at present, has 11 non-coking coal washeries and six coking coal washeries in operation with a combined washing capacity of 39.50 million tons annually. The company plans to set up 20 more non-coking coal washeries with a combined capacity of 111.11 mtpa.