The central government has been facing the coal scarcity issues for last few months. (Source: Facebook/RK Singh)
Battling coal scarcity in around 50 thermal power plants across the country, the Ministry of Power has decided that new plants, except extension units of the existing ones, would now be set up only within 500 kms of a coal field.
This decision was taken on January 25, 2018, at a meeting that was called on the topic of “review of coal supply to power stations” and was chaired by R K Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and New and Renewable Energy. The minutes of this meeting stated that “to tide over the coal supply availability vis-a-vis transportation in the power plants in future….new thermal power plant, except extension units, shall be set up only within 500 km of coal field”.
On January 22, 2018, another meeting, on the same topic was chaired by Singh, wherein he “indicated” in his opening remarks that the coal supply situation “is still critical” as there are “10 power stations with zero coal stock and around 45 power stations with coal stock for 1-6 days”. Both aforementioned meetings were attended by officials of Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Railways and Central Electricity Authority and executives of NTPC Ltd, Coal India Limited and Singareni Collieries Company Limited.
The power minister stated at the meeting: “Efforts should be made by coal companies and Railways to improve coal supply to the power stations so that the power stations have sufficient coal stock to meet their requirement and build up their stock to normative level so that there should not be any shortage of coal during the next monsoon season i.e. June to September, 2018.”
The central government has been facing the coal scarcity issues for last few months. On December 7, 2017, Singh had a meeting with power and new and renewable energy ministers of state governments. At this meeting, D K Shivakumar, Minister of Energy, Karnataka, as well as a senior energy department official of Andhra Pradesh raised the issue of coal shortage for thermal power generation. “Honourable Union Minister (Singh) informed that current coal scarcity is recognised. This is being monitored everyday and Minister is also getting updates every day. Position is improving now and commercial mining is likely to solve the problem in long term,” the minutes of December 7 meeting stated.
According to a senior government official, the central government is currently working out the modalities with other ministries on the topic of auctioning coal mines to private sector entities for commercial mining. However, a recent Coal India Limited (CIL) study stated: “Although initial steps have been taken towards the creation of a competitive coal market in India, any material outcome is unlikely in the near future as CIL is likely to remain the dominant commercial coal supplier in India.” It added that while captive mining may emerge as a significant supply source, it will not impact the commercial supply and related market structure.
The CIL study added: “No new coal mines need to be allocated/auctioned beyond the current pipeline. The total capacity of mines allocated or auctioned (including to CIL, Singareni Collieries Company Limited and NLC India Limited) as on date is about 1,500 MTPA (million tonnes per annum) at the current rated capacity. In view of the likely demand (base case scenario), there is limited requirement of starting new coal mines except the ones already auctioned/ allocated.”