In a bid to ensure uninterrupted power supply across India amid rising demand, the Power Ministry has increased the mandate for blending of imported coal from 4% to 6% untill March 2024. The government's order, taken in consultation with the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and Grid India, is aimed at all gencos, including Independent Power Producers (IPPs), for timely import of coal for blending purposes as well as asks for maximising production in captive coal mines.

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The order allows gencos to continuously review their stock position and opt for blending as per their requirements if the shortfall in domestic coal supply is more than 6%.

While reviewing the status of power supply across India, the government has observed a consistent rise in power demand coupled with an inadequate supply of domestic coal. This has resulted in the rapid depletion of coal stocks at domestic coal-based (DCB) plants.

Noting that the gap between receipt of domestic coal and consumption (which includes both domestic and an equivalent domestic of imported coal) from September 1 to October 9, 2023, was around 12 metric tons (MT), which puts an additional burden on coal-based thermal generation.

The situation was exacerbated by an 11% fall in hydropower generation in the first half of FY24, compared to the corresponding period of FY23, owing to variable monsoon rainfall. While 2 GW of hydropower capacity was lost due to damage to several dams in the recent floods in Sikkim, the reservoir levels in the northern, eastern, and southern parts of India were also lower compared to the previous year as on October 9, 2023.

Earlier this week, the Coal Ministry said that the total coal stock as of October 21 was 71.35 million tonnes (MT) as against 60.44 MT on the same day last year. While year-on-year (YoY) coal production has risen 12.73% and the current daily coal supply is higher than consumption, the Coal Ministry has said that there's already a strategy in place to ensure the normal production of coal during the current festive season. While India’s power demand in August 2023 rose 21%, much more than any other large country, the power demand in July 2023 grew by 10%, which was 40,000–50,000 MW more than the previous year on a daily basis.

On September 5, Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy, RK Singh, told CNBC TV18 that the coal stocks on pitheads were 18 MT, ample for nine days of consumption. He had said that the daily arrivals of domestic coal were less than the daily consumption as demand had outstripped production, adding that imports for blending will continue to ensure that there's no load shedding.

(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)

First Published:Oct 25, 2023 5:10 PM IST