Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday reviewed coal production and stressed on continuing the momentum to dispatch maximum dry-fuel to thermal power plants. The development assumes significance in the wake of Coal India, which accounts for more than 80% of domestic coal output, has been prioritising fuel supply temporarily to the power sector in view of the low stock position at thermal power plant.
“Held a follow-up meeting with senior officials of @CoalMinistry & @CoalIndiaHQ, post my recent visit to @secl_cil. Reviewed coal production, offtake and emphasized on continuing the momentum to dispatch maximum coal to thermal power plants,” the minister said in a tweet.
Power Minister R K Singh on Monday exuded confidence that there will be no power shortage in the country amid the ongoing low coal stocks at power plants and stressed on timely payments by distribution companies to the plants for electricity supplied to them.
After the virtual launch of the green day market for sale of renewable energy on exchanges, Singh assured, “There won’t be any back down…There was no (power) outage yesterday. There was no (power shortage) and it did not happen even before. If there is some outage, then that is because of our own (states’) constraints.”
The minister informed that power plants in the country have more than 8 million tonnes of coal at present.
According to the latest report of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) which monitors 135 plants with over 165GW capacity, thermal projects had 8.1 million tonnes of coal on October 23, 2021, which is sufficient for four days (for these 135 plants).
Besides, the report showed as many as 49 non-pithead plants had less than four days or supercritical stock of dry fuel on Saturday compared to 62 such plants a week ago on October 16. This shows gradual improvement in the coal stock situation at thermal power plants in the country.
