Coal stocks at the country’s imported coal-based power plants, with combined capacity of 17.9 gigawatt (GW), fell to just 47% of the normative level, at 2.28 million tonnes as on June 28, data from the Central Electricity Authority showed. Moreover, as many as 184 thermal plants of the country – including domestic and imported coal based plants – with a total capacity of 211 GW have fuel stocks of just 66% the normative level at 46.8 million tonnes.
This comes amid the rising demand for power and apprehensions of supply constraints as the monsoon season progresses.
The government is fearing lower supplies of coal to thermal plants due to logistic issues during the monsoon season. The railway ministry has informed that the availability of rakes for transportation of coal in the second quarter of the current fiscal is estimated to decline to 403 rakes per day compared to 432 rakes per day in Q1FY25 till date, due to various supply issues in the monsoon.
Realty has Rs 14 trillion finance opportunity between 2024-26, says report
Second to none, thrifting set to outpace apparel market
Telcos to put tariff hikes on speed dial
ITC increases rural reach by 1.3x: Will it boost demand recovery?
In a move to ensure adequate stocks of coal at thermal power plants, the government has recently asked all the domestic coal based plants to continue blending of imported coal at 4% till October 15.
“In order to meet the power demand during the crucial monsoon months and to ensure uninterrupted power supply across the country, adequate coal reserves in domestic coal based plants (DCBs) need to be maintained by all the central and state GENCOs and IPPs (independent power producers),” the government had said.
The government noted that while the domestic availability of coal has improved this fiscal year, there still lies a gap between the receipt and consumption of the dry fuel at 130,000 tonnes per day in the domestic coal based plants
The country’s coal production stood at 207.48 million tonnes as of June 16, marking a growth of 9.27% from the same period of last year when the country had produced 189.87 million tonnes of coal.
According to data provided by S&P Global Commodities at Sea, India has imported around 85 million tonnes of thermal coal so far in 2024. The country’s imports of coal stood at 265 million tonnes during FY24 against 238 million tonnes in FY23, as per official data.
For FY25, the power sector has placed a demand of 874 million tonnes of coal to the coal ministry for supply to its thermal power plants and to be able to meet the increasing demand for power. In FY24, the coal demand by the power sector stood at 821 million tonnes.
The power ministry has projected peak dower demand to touch 260 GW during this summer. In September last year, the peak demand reached 243 GW. As per Icra, the country registered a growth of 11% in its power demand in the first quarter of the current financial year 2024-25 due to extreme temperatures across the country and a favorable base.
In May, the peak power demand rose to 250 GW as against 221.42 GW in the same period last year, according to CEA data.
As of May, the country’s total installed power generation capacity stood at 444.7 GW comprising 242.9 GW of cumulative thermal capacity, 193.6 GW of renewables, and 8.1 GW of nuclear capacity.
From: financialexpress
Financial News
