Coal news and updates

Indian power cos’ Jan coal consumption up 4% m-o-m

Coal consumption by India’s power utilities monitored by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in January 2016 were at 47.47 million tons (mt), up 4.33% from 45.50 mt in December 2015, as per data available with ICMW.

On a year-on-year basis, coal consumption was up 3.65% at 45.80 mt in January 2015.

Coal consumption by the power plants monitored by this central agency during the first 10 months of 2015-16 (April-January) were at 453.338 mt compared to 444.872 mt seen in the same period of the previous fiscal, up 1.9% year-on-year.

This growth seems to be reversing a trend seen so far of poor demand for electricity in the country as distribution companies have failed to purchase power due to their weak financial conditions. One reason could be the recent encouragement received in the form of the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojna (UDAY) launched by the government.

Consumption of the fuel by the power plants in entire 2014-15 stood at 531.48 mt and the current trend indicates that the consumption may range around 545 mt in 2015-16 because of low imports and higher availability of domestic coal.

On the back of the healthier 4.33% increase in coal consumption in January 2016 against 1.27% in December 2015, generation of power by coal-fired plants during the first 10 months of 2015-16 stood at 710.685 BU, up 6.41% compared to 667.883 BU during the corresponding period of 2014-15.

Meanwhile, specific coal consumption (receipt, consumption and coal stocks, including coal from all sources) in the first 10 months of the current fiscal stood at 0.659 kg/kWh against 0.658 kg/kWh, remaining almost flat at 0.15% year-on-year.