Onset of winter may raise coal demand: CIL
18 Oct 2016
Staterun Coal India (CIL) sees sales picking up in the coming days as the onset
of winters in northern India would mean an increase in power consumption.
Sales at CIL fell 1% yearonyear in the first half of the current fiscal, mainly due to the four
months of a near normal, welldistributed monsoon. Coal accounts for about threefourths of
India’s electricity generation.
Over the past several weeks, power producers have been refusing to lift additional coal from pit heads, a Coal India senior executive said
on condition of anonymity. As a result, coal stocks at power plants hit a low of 16 days against 22 days during the same time last year.
“Power houses have assured us that they would now be lifting more coal compared to what they have been lifting in the past several
weeks,” said the executive quoted above. “The decision is based on the assumption that power demand will rise steadily now that
monsoon is over.”
Production growth at Coal India was flat in the first half of 201617 although the company achieved 90% of its targets. Despite a marginal
fall in sales, it achieved 88% of its sales target for the period. CIL managed to produce 230 MT of coal and sold around 249 MT during the
period, thereby reducing stocks by by some 19 MT.
Stem Carbon Emissions
ET View
The way ahead is to stepup demand side innovation to stem carbon emissions from thermal power plants. Now that coalfuelled power
plants can reportedly be restarted in an hour or so, we need to rapidly diffuse such demandside innovation. Coalfuelled power units can
then be operated as peakingload plants in the hours of peak power demand.
KOLKATA: Staterun Coal India (CIL) sees sales picking up in the coming days as the onset of winters in northern India would mean an
increase in power consumption.
Sales at CIL fell 1% yearonyear in the first half of the current fiscal, mainly due to the four months of a near normal, welldistributed
monsoon. Coal accounts for about threefourths of India’s electricity generation.
Over the past several weeks, power producers have been refusing to lift additional coal from pit heads, a Coal India senior executive said
on condition of anonymity. As a result, coal stocks at power plants hit a low of 16 days against 22 days during the same time last year.
“Power houses have assured us that they would now be lifting more coal compared to what they have been lifting in the past several
weeks,” said the executive quoted above. “The decision is based on the assumption that power demand will rise steadily now that
monsoon is over.”
Production growth at Coal India was flat in the first half of 201617 although the company achieved 90% of its targets. Despite a marginal
fall in sales, it achieved 88% of its sales target for the period. CIL managed to produce 230 MT of coal and sold around 249 MT during the
period, thereby reducing stocks by by some 19 MT
SOurce: Economic Times