Govt may revise coal stock norms amid power crisis

Subhash Narayan & Rituraj Baruah

NEW DELHI: The government is likely to lower the minimum coal stock requirements for power stations to “realistic” levels in order to reduce the financial burden on gencos as they grapple with fuel shortages that have triggered a power crisis. Two people aware of the development said the power ministry is looking to reduce coal stock limits set for thermal power plants close to the levels fixed in 2020 when lower power demand pushed gencos to cut fuel consumption and reduce power generation. The limits were raised again in 2021.

“While the situation is reverse of 2020 as power demand now has reached its highest levels, a cut in coal stocking requirements is expected to help gencos plan better on fuel management while reducing the extra expenditure required in maintaining high levels of coal stock at power plants that also poses risk of catching fire,” said one of the people cited above.

Though the number of days of coal stock at power plants is still being discussed, the two people cited above said it may be brought down to 10 days of coal stock for pit head power plants running at 85% of capacity and around 14 days for non-pit head plants running at same capacity. A similar norm was followed prior to the pandemic, before it was moved to distance-based differential stocking limits.

Currently, as per the distancebased differential stocking norms, pit head power plants (close to coal bearing areas) are needed to maintain coal stock sufficient to run power stations at 85% of their capacity for 12-17 days. For non-pit head power plants, the limit varies from 20 days to 26 days depending on the distance of the plant from coal source. Queries sent to the coal and power ministries remained unanswered at press time.

“This (current) limit is too high and will require power plants to maintain at least 65 million tonnes of coal to meet the coal stocking norm set by Central Electricity Authority (CEA). The maximum coal stock at power plants till date has reached 45 million tonne. So, the current norms are unrealistic and that is one of the reasons most power plants have critical coal stocks (less than 25% of the stipulated levels) even though the fuel situation may not be that critical with them,” said a government official aware of the deliberations to review and reduce coal stocking norms.