New Delhi, Oct 10 (Agency) The Union Ministry of Coal on Sunday said that ample coal is available in the country to meet the demand of power plants. The statement of the Ministry comes in the wake of reports of a looming power crisis in some states, including Delhi due to shortage of coal at the power plants. “Coal availability is sufficient to meet power plants demands. Any fear of disruption in power supply is entirely misplaced. The coal stock at the power plants end is about 72 lakh tonnes, sufficient for four days requirement, and that the Coal India Limited (CIL) end is more than 400 lakh tonnes, which is being supplied to the power plants,” said the Coal Ministry in a release.
The domestic coal based power generation has grown by nearly 24 per cent in this year (till September 2021) based on a robust supply from the coal companies, it said, adding, the daily average coal requirement at the power plants is about 18.5 lakh tonnes of coal per day whereas the daily coal supply has been around 17.5 lakh tonnes per day. “The coal available at the power plants is a rolling stock which gets replenished by the supplies from the coal companies on a daily basis. Therefore, any fear of coal stocks depleting at the power plant end is erroneous. In fact this year, domestic coal supply has substituted imports by a substantial measure,” the release said. The Ministry, however, said due to extended monsoons the dispatches were “constrained”. “Despite heavy rains in the coal field areas, CIL (Coal India Limited) had supplied more than 255 MT coal to the power sector in this year which is the highest ever H-1 supply from CIL to the power sector. Out of the total coal supply from all sources, present coal supply from CIL to power sector is more than 14 lakh tonnes per day and with the receding rains, this supply has already increased to 15 lakh tonnes and is set to increase to more than 16 lakh tonnes per day by the end of October 2021,” the release said. The supply from SCCL (Singareni Collieries Company Limited) and captive coal blocks shall contribute to another three lakh plus tonnes of coal every day, it added. On Saturday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Delhi could face a power crisis due to shortage of coal at the power plants and sought his intervention.