New Delhi, May 18 (Agency) Amid rising demand for power and shortage of domestic coal, Union Minister of Power RK Singh on Wednesday asked chief ministers to take immediate steps to ensure availability of the fossil fuel to meet the electricity requirements during the monsoon season. The minister has written to the state chiefs to ask the state-owned generating companies to take immediate steps to import coal in order to meet their requirements during Monsoon season. In separate letters to Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal, the minister has expressed concerns about not initiating or completing the tender process for importing coal. Meanwhile, the power ministry has also written letters to all power generators including independent power producers (IPPs) to ensure timely import of coal for blending.
Recently, the Ministry of Power had advised state GENCOs to import 10 per cent of coal requirement for blending purposes. States were advised to place orders by May 31 such that delivery of 50 per cent quantity is ensured by June 30, 40 per cent by August 31 and remaining 10 per cent by October 31. “Due to the increase in demand and consumption of electricity, the share of coal-based generation has increased and the total coal consumption by power plants has also increased,” Singh said, adding that the materialization of domestic coal is only about 88 per cent of total requirements. “To ensure minimum required coal stocks in power plants before the onset of monsoon, the minister has directed that the thermal power plants owned by state gencos and IPPs must use all the sources to maintain adequate coal stock,” he added.
Singh further said that if the states fail to lift the coal offered under the RCR mode, then it will be allocated to other needy state GENCOs. “If the present state of affairs continues it may lead to shortage of coal in states during monsoon adversely affecting the power supply situation in the states,” he added. The ministry said that it had issued directions u/s 11 of the Electricity Act that all the imported coal based plants start running and most of them have started running. However, the import by states of coal for blending is not satisfactory, it noted. In 2018-19 a total of 21.4 million tonne of coal was imported for blending, while it increased to 23.8 MT in 2019-20, it declined to 8.3 MT in 2021-22. “This is the cause of the stress in the availability of coal,” the ministry added.