State-owned Coal India (CIL) on Monday said coal supply to the power sector rose 15.6 percent to 49.7 million tonnes last month in the wake of the high demand for the dry fuel from electricity generating plants and stressed that it is planning to augment its dispatches further, especially to power plants in the coming months. The statement comes when several parts of the country grapples with a power crisis.

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"With the intense demand for coal continuing unabated, driven by an upward spiral in the electricity generation, Coal India pushed up its supplies to the country's power plants to 49.7 million tonnes (MT) in April'22. This is 6.7 MT more supply than April 2021 when the power sector's dispatch was 43 MTs," the maharatna firm said. With higher output, CIL aims to increase its dispatches further, especially to power plants in the coming months.

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Coal India, which accounts for over 80 percent of domestic coal output, is one of the major suppliers of fossil fuel to the power sector. On average, the PSU supplied 1.66 MT of coal per day to power utilities in April, which increased to 1.73 MT during last week. The average supply per day is at par with what was programmed by CIL for this sector during the first quarter of FY23.

The coal production by the PSU also rose 27.6 percent to 53.5 MT last month, over 41.9 MT in April 2021. "To keep up with the increased appetite for coal, CIL accelerated its production to 53.5 MT, logging a strong 27.6 percent growth," the PSU said.

All the subsidiaries of CIL have registered year-on-year growth. Mahanadi Coalfields, South Eastern Coalfields, Northern Coalfields, and Western Coalfields significantly ramped up the production in April. "Coal output of April 2022 was the highest ever for the month, eclipsing the previous peak of 45.3 MT achieved in April 2019," it said.

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CIL's total offtake rose sharply to 57.5 MT in April, registering 6 percent growth compared to 54.2 MT of same month last year. The offtake was 4 MT more than the output of the month.

Importantly, CIL registered 16 percent growth in its over burden removal (OBR). The company excavated 132.8 million cubic metres of OBR during the month, registering 16 percent growth. The same was 114.6 million cubic metres in April'21. OBR is an important performance criterion that removes the topsoil in opencast mining and exposes the coal seam for faster extraction of coal in future. It also improves the mine geometry and makes mines safer to operate.

The government had earlier said that the current power crisis is mainly due to the sharp decline in electricity generation from different fuel sources and not due to the non-availability of domestic coal. Coal Secretary A K Jain had attributed the low coal stocks at power plants to several factors such as heightened power demand due to the boom in the economy post-COVID-19, early arrival of summer, rise in the price of gas and imported coal and sharp fall in electricity generation by coastal thermal power plants.

First Published:May 2, 2022 2:10 PM IST