Domestic coal supply to power sector sees 7 pct rise

New Delhi (India), May 29 (ANI): The domestic coal supply to power sector from Coal India Limited (CIL) and Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) in 2017-18 has been 507.5 MT, which is an impressive growth of seven percent over the previous year supplies, the Coal Ministry said on Monday.
The coal supply to power sector from CIL in the FY 2018-19 (till May 23) has been 73.6 MT, which is an increase of 14 percent as compared to the same period of last year.
The overall coal supply from CIL and SCCL to power sector in the month of April 2018 has been 45.1 MT against a projected demand of 47.23 MT (95.5 percent materialisation) and for May 2018 (till May 24) the supply has been 37.2 MT against a projected demand of 38.05 MT (97.76 percent materialisation).
The above demand was projected by Ministry of Power taking into account the coal required for power generation as well as for building up coal stock ahead of monsoon season.
The coal imports by power sector have been continuously reducing and in the year 2017-18, the total imports have been 56.412 MT which was a reduction of 14.7 percent as compared to the last year.
The import of coal by domestic coal based plants has reduced from 46.29 MT to 39.36 MT in the year 2017-18.
This trend in reduction in imported coal is continuing in this year also and in the month of April 2018, the coal import has been 3.73 MT as against 4.798 MT in the month of April 2017 (22 percent reduction).
The coal is being supplied to all the customers but as this item is placed in the Open General License (OGL), the final decision to import is taken by the consumer based on the landed cost of coal.
The demand of domestic coal for the year 2018-19 has been projected to be 513 MT from CIL apart from the 12 MT demand of e-auction coal.
This is an increase of 15.6 percent over and above the coal supplied by CIL in the last financial year.
This demand is projected keeping in mind the other sources of power generation like hydro, nuclear, renewable etc may falter as in previous year.
The coal supply from CIL and SCCL to power sector, till May 24, is 82.3 MT, which is 2.98 MT less than the demanded quantity.
The coal stock at the power plants is sufficient for 10 days even after catering for a 3.2 percent increase in coal based generation and 2.2 percent increase above the programmed generation from coal based plants. (ANI)