Maintaining coal production and stable supply to thermal plants

Power plants have been advised to import coal for blending purposes during 2022-23 to meet the 10 per cent requirement (by weight)

Today, India’s average gap between energy requirements and energy supply is only 1 per cent. The gap between energy demand and supply
is generally caused by factors other than the country’s inadequacy of power availability, such as distribution network constraints, financial constraints, commercial reasons, forced outages of generating units, etc

The country has an abundance of coal. The total coal production in India during 2021-2022 was 778.19 metric tons (MT), up from 716.083 MT from 2020-2021. Furthermore, in the current fiscal year (through June 22), the country produced 204.876 MT of coal, up from 156.11 MT in the same period last year, representing a 31 per cent increase.

In 2016, the government authorised states to use coal in any private generating station (IPP) chosen through an e-bidding process and to take equivalent power. The Ministry of Power published the methodology titled “Flexibility in the utilisation of domestic coal (Case-4)” in 2017. 

Adoption of technologies for efficiency improvement: Supercritical technology and Ultra Supercritical Technology for thermal power generation have improved the efficiency of thermal power stations and have already been deployed. As a result, the consumption of fossil fuels will decline, minimising CO2 emissions.

 According to government approval, the Annual Contracted Quantity (ACQ) per MegaWatt (MW) entitlement of all power plants, regardless of age or technical parameters, shall be calculated based on normative station heat rate with an upper ceiling of 2600 kcal/kwh. As a result of the efficient utilisation of inefficient coal units, the normative coal requirement of less efficient power plants with a heat rate greater than 2600 Kcal/Kwh has been reduced to coal corresponding to 2600 Kcal/Kwh. 

To address the issue of coal supplies to the power sector, an Inter-Ministerial Sub Group comprised of representatives from the Ministries of Power, Coal, and Railways, CEA, CIL, and SCCL meets regularly to make various operational decisions to improve the supply of coal to thermal power plants and to meet any contingent situations relating to the power sector, such as alleviating critical coal stock positions in power plants.

 Coal India Limited, the country’s largest coal supplier, delivered 152.49 MT of coal to the power sector in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, breaking all previous highs for the same period and increasing by 19 per cent over the same period last year. Similarly, Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) delivered 14.43 MT of coal to the power sector in the first quarter of the current fiscal, representing a 4.1 per cent increase over the same period last year. According to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), coal stock at power plants increased from 25.6 MT on March 31, 2022, to 28.3 MT on July 18, 2022.

 The ministry recently advised power plants to import coal for blending purposes during 2022-23 to meet the requirement of 10 per cent (by weight).