Fear of Coal Shortage: There is no shortage of coal, this year the stock is at a low due to high power generation, Central Coalfields CMD PM Prasad said on Monday. Prasad, CMD, Central Coalfields Limited, Ranchi, Jharkhand said, “From Coal India, we supplied at least 53 million tonnes in the first half of the financial year over the previous year – an increase of about 20%.”
He said that with respect to Jharkhand, both CCL and BCCL have seen an increase of more than 20% of dispatches. “We have also diluted our stock – about 6.5 million tonnes in CCL and about 2.4 million tonnes in BCCL,” he said.
Prasad said he is confident that it will stabilize in the next one week and will pick up further from October 17. “In the last 3-4 days, the power plants are getting coal. If their requirement is 16 lakh tonnes, then about 15 lakh tonnes is being met. I am sure it will stabilize in the coming 1-2 weeks.”
The official further added: “The stock of Coal India will last for at least 20 days, in case of CCL it is 1.95 million tonnes and in case of BCCL it is 6.5 lakh tonnes.
In a separate development, the Coal India arm, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), said that on an average 76.6% of coal was provided to power producers during the current month.
On an average, 76.6 percent coal has been provided to power consumers during the current month, while 20.4 percent coal has been provided to non-power consumers.
MCL supplied 5.34 lakh tonnes of coal to consumers on Sunday, the highest ever with 62 rakes from its Talcher coalfields, with an average of over half a million tonnes of coal supplied to consumers, the company said.
MCL said at least 95 rakes carrying coal from the company’s Talcher and IB Valley coalfields were dispatched to consumers, while 23 rakes were supplied through merry-go-round.
MCL Chairman and Managing Director PK Sinha lauded the planning and operations teams and said, “We have to continue in the same spirit to ensure that our consumers have enough coal.”
Coal India Limited (CIL) contributes more than 80% of the total domestic coal production.
The Ministry of Coal has assured that enough coal is available in the country to meet the demand of power plants. “Any fear of disruption in power supply is completely false. The coal stock at the power plant end is around 72 lakh tonnes, which is enough to require 4 days, and the Coal India Limited (CIL) end is over 400 lakh tonnes, which is being supplied to the power plants. .
In a statement, the ministry said domestic coal-based power generation has grown by about 24% this year (as of September 2021) based on strong supply from coal companies. The average daily requirement of coal in power plants is around 18.5 lakh tonnes per day while the daily coal supply is around 17.5 lakh tonnes per day.
“The dispatches were disrupted due to the extended monsoon. Coal available at power plants is a rolling stock that is replenished by supplies from coal companies on a daily basis. Therefore, any fear of depleting coal stocks at the end of the power plant is misplaced. In fact this year the domestic coal supply has largely replaced the imports.”
(with inputs from agencies)
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