Coal news and updates

Power utilities advised to import coal to meet fuel shortage

July 8: The Ministry of Coal, on July, advised power utilities to enhance coal imports in order to ensure adequate availability of the fuel although domestic coal producer Coal India Limited (CIL) has been asked to enhance production, according to an official release by the Ministry of Coal (MoC).
 
During April-May, 2014, power utilities imported 7.6 million tons (mt) of coal against the pro-rata target of 9.0 mt, said Piyush Goyal, Minister of State for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy (Independent Charge).
 
At present, 70 of the 100 coal-based power plants in India, monitored by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), are running with either critical coal stocks of less than seven days’ requirement or super critical coal stocks of less than four days’ requirement, as on June 29, 2014.
 
Piyush Goyal said, in addition to the above, with a view to monitoring coal supplies to power utilities, an inter-ministerial sub-group comprising representatives of the ministries of power, coal and railways has been constituted for taking various operational decisions for meeting any contingent situations relating to the power sector, including critical coal stocks position.
 
Further, the minister said the scheme of lifting coal on “as is where is” basis from mines of CIL under the fuel supply agreements (FSAs) has been extended for the current financial year as well. Under the scheme, all thermal power projects or TPPs, including National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) having FSAs from CIL sources, have been informed to lift coal under this scheme by arranging their own logistics for movement of coal offered from various pithead locations.

CIL has also offered 1 mt of coal from cost-plus mines of Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) through short-term memorandum of understanding (MoU) as extension of the above scheme to power stations of NTPC presently facing critical stock issues arising out of less receipt of coal from other coal companies.
 
“Production from these 20 captive coal blocks during the year 2013-14 was 25.276 mt,” the minister added.