Union Minister speaks on government’s initiatives to increase coal production and supply to power plants

New Delhi [India], July 25 (ANI): Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs, has said that the government is taking steps to improve coal production and supply coal to thermal power plants. He added that in the 2022-2023 period (April 2022 to June 2022), the gap between energy requirement and energy supplied was only one per cent.
Joshi informed the upper house of the parliament that there is enough coal in the nation. He said that the all India coal production in 2021-2022 was 778.19 Million Tonne (MT) as opposed to 716.083 MT in 2020-2021. In addition, in the current fiscal year (up to June’22), the country has produced 204.876 MT of coal compared to 156.11 MT during the same period of last year, which is a rise of 31 per cent.
The minister said that the government has allowed states to use their coal in private generating stations (IPPs) selected through e-bidding process and take equivalent power. He also highlighted that Supercritical technology and Ultra Super-Critical Technology for thermal power generation have been adopted, which will reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and cut CO2 emissions.
Joshi stated that Annual Contracted Quantity (ACQ) per Mega Watt (MW) entitlement of all power plants will be calculated based on normative station heat rate with an upper ceiling of 2600 kcal/kwh. He said that this is to ensure efficient utilization of coal in efficient units and to limit the coal requirement of less efficient power plants with heat rate above 2600 Kcal/Kwh to coal corresponding to 2600 kcal/kwh.
The minister informed that an Inter-Ministerial Sub Group has been set up with representatives from Ministries of Power, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Railways, CEA, CIL and SCCL to enhance coal supply to thermal power plants and to address any coal related issues. He added that an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) has also been established with representatives from the Railway Board, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Ministry of Power to monitor coal supply and power generation capacity.
Joshi said that Coal India Limited has dispatched 152.49 MT of coal to Power Sector in the first quarter of the current fiscal, which is 19 per cent more than the same period of last year. He added that Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) has dispatched 14.43 MT of coal to Power Sector in the first quarter of the current fiscal, which is a 4.1 per cent rise over last year same period. As per Central Electricity Authority (CEA), coal stock at the power plants has improved from the level of 25.6 MT as on 31.03.2022 to 28.3 MT on 18.07.2022. (ANI)