Coal news and updates

Indian power plants FY17 coal requirement at 600 mt

Indian power plants will need a total of about 600 million tons (mt) of coal during financial year 2016-17, according to an assessment by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

Of the total 600 mt, as much 552 mt will be needed by the power plants designed to operate on domestic coal and around 48 mt for the power plants designed on imported coal, the CEA said.

The assessment by CEA indicates that there will be no imports of coal by power plants designed to operate on domestic coal for blending purposes and imports by power plants designed to operate on overseas coal will be slightly lower than their imports in 2015-16.

In fact, in 2016-17, total imports of coal by power plants stood at 80.6 mt comprising 37.1 for blending with domestic coal and 43.5 mt for use by power plants designed on imported coal.

Incidentally, as per the government’s estimate, India’s total coal imports in 2015-16 were estimated at about 200 mt in 2015-16 (195.5 mt till February 2016).

However, as per ICMW’s estimate, India’s coal imports (coking, non-coking, PCI, anthracite, met coke, pet coke) stood at 219.44 mt (provisional).