The ministry was regularising production for the last 18 months as power plants were not lifting coal due to its easier availability and record production
Coal supply situation to the power plants across India is likely to ease by early October.
While addressing a gathering at Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, Minister of Coal Piyush Goyal said that he doesn’t expect any problem with coal supplies.
According to him, the coal ministry was regularising production for the last 18 months as power plants were not lifting coal due to its easier availability and record output. In fact, the coal secretary had been urging chief secretaries of all the states to stock coal for their power plants, but the plea fell on deaf ears.
Moreover, there was an increase in demand for coal because of a dip in power generation last month from hydel, nuclear and other sources by 12%, 36% and 7%, respectively. “This led to an increase in demand for power from thermal power plants,” said Goyal.
Also, private investment in coal mines will get revived due to a shortage of coal stock at thermal power plants.
However, cess on coal that was introduced under the goods and services tax to promote renewable energy and for fair pricing of coal-based power generation is likely to continue.
The data available with Coal India Limited (CIL) to the power sector shows that as on September 17, out of the total daily coal dispatch of 1 million tonne, dispatch to power sector was about 0.88 million tonne and the balance 0.12 million tonne was to the non-regulated sector.
As on Sunday, a total of 161.5 railway rakes of coal were dispatched to different consumers, out of which 146 railway rakes were dispatched to power sector alone.
“The dispatch to power sector through rail is around 20% more as compared to September 17 last year,” read CIL’s statement.
Earlier this week, that is on Sunday, eight thermal power plants facing coal shortage were in a critical status, whereas nine were in super-critical state.
An analyst with rating firm Crisil told DNA Money that certain power plants had undertaken their routine maintenance work a couple of months ago. Therefore, the power generation will only increase in the coming weeks.
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