Coal news and updates

India likely to be self-reliant in thermal coal by 2024: Secy

The country may not need to import coal for generating electricity by 2024. Production by both Coal India Limited (CIL) and private companies is going up, which is ultimately expected to do away with the need for importing coal which is used in power plants, said Union coal secretary Anilkumar Jain.

Jain was in the city on Tuesday to attend a meeting at Western Coalfields Limited (WCL). He also met senior officials of power generation companies from various states to which WCL supplies coal. WCL, which is a subsidiary of CIL, also supplies coal to states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka apart from Mahagenco in Maharashtra.

Kumar said the production is steadily going up. As much as 8% of the coal requirement by power sector is met by imports. This comes to 90 million tonnes.

During the coal crisis of last year, imports had come down to 3% due to high prices in the international market. The PSU coal sector was somehow able to meet the 5% gap from domestic production then.

Jain said this year, the demand for power has grown by 9%. An additional 10% hike is expected for the year 2024. The secretary said it may be a tricky situation for the coal sector to meet the demand. However, it may be managed. At the same time, Jain was optimistic about production going up to such a level in 2024 that import of thermal coal may be done away with.

He said the production by CIL on the whole is expected to touch 700 million tonnes next year as against 630 million tonnes at present. There has also been a steady increase in production by private coal mines. From 63 million tonnes, it has gone up to 85 million tonnes and the output is expected to grow further.

WCL has been suggested to explore the possibility of a flexible pricing system for its coal supplied to power companies so that it can recover the cost of a high stripping ratio.

Stripping ratio is the amount of earth needed to dug up for extracting one tonne of coal. In the mines under WCL, it ranges up to 6 to 10 tonnes of earth dug up to get one tonne coal.

Jain said an option of WCL getting flexibility to fix rates is being explored. The company can work out with the customers in the power sector.

Mahagenco is the major consumer of WCL coal. An increase in coal price can also have an impact on the power tariff. However, senior WCL officials clarified this matter is just at an initial stage and no decision has been taken at this juncture.