In a bid to help power Gencos to reduce their generation cost, Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) has offered substantial additional quantity of coal to different power Gencos of central, west & south India at a cheaper landed price. This will not only help Gencos to minimise their cost to reduce power tariff but will also be a factor to cut down import of thermal coal in the interest of the nation.
WCL has the advantage of having its mining operation in central India. This helps consumers of Central, West & South India to get cheaper landed coal due to advantage in lesser Railway freight in comparison to other Coal Companies of CIL located in Eastern part of the country. With locational advantage & phenomenal growth in production, WCL has offered 20-25 MT of coal to State Gencos, NTPC & other Independent Power Producers (IPPs) by swapping their linkage from other Coal Companies. This will be in addition to their existing linkage quantity with WCL.
In a series of detailed discussion during last two days with WCL & State Gencos of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat followed by NTPC & IPPs, all parameters of existing linkage & future swapping have been discussed along with financial benefit to Gencos. Efforts will be made to complete the swapping procedure at the earliest so that WCL may start dispatching the additional quantity by Oct’20. The additional quantity offered for swapping ranges from 3-6 MT to different Gencos depending on their requirement. The quantity will further increase in future subject to availability of more surplus coal. Coal production in WCL went down to a level of 39 Million Tonnes during 2013-14. Power Consumers had no option, but to take coal from other Subsidiaries of CIL viz. SECL, MCL & also from SCCL. Due to larger distance, consumers had to pay more on Railway freight making landed price of coal higher. However, WCL opened 20 projects in last 6 years which contributed 36 MT production during 2019-20. WCL produced about 58 MT of coal during 2019-20 even after losing 22 MT of production during last 6 years due to exhaustion of reserves. WCL has now planned to open further 20 projects to take the production level to 75 MT by 2023-24 & 100 MT by 2026-27. With substantial growth in coal production, WCL has now sufficient coal to offer to its nearby consumers at a cheaper landed price.
