Fresh guidelines: Centre directs imported coal-based plants to run at full capacity

LUCKNOW : The Centre on Friday issued fresh instructions to states asking them to ensure that all plants based on imported coal operated and generated power to their full capacity after it directed them and generating companies based on domestic coal to import at least 10 percent of their requirement of coal for blending.

The instructions issued by the Union power ministry on Friday under the provisions of the Section 11 Electricity Act, 2003, also permit generating companies to sell power to the energy exchanges.

“The demand for power has gone up by almost 20% in energy terms. The supply of domestic coal has increased but the increase in the supply is not sufficient to meet the increased demand for power. This is leading to load shedding in different areas,” the ministry says in the letter issued to states.

“Because of the mismatch between the daily consumption of coal for power generation and the daily receipt of coal at the power plant, the stock of coal at the power plant has been declining at a worrisome rate,” it adds.

It further said that international price of coal had gone up in an unprecedented fashion because of which the import of coal for blending, which was of the order of 37 million tonnes in 2015-16, had gone down leading to more pressure on domestic coal.

Issuing directions to deal with this situation, the ministry said all imported coal-based power plants “shall” operate and generate power to their full capacity. “These plants will supply power in the first instance to the PPA holders. Any surplus power left thereafter or any power for which there is no PPA will be sold in the Power Exchanges,” it said.

Taking exception to the Centre’s fresh directions, UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad chairman Avdhesh Kumar Verma said the state was being forced to buy imported coal despite the fact that there was no shortage of domestic coal. “There is ploy to benefit some private companies dealing in imported coal,” he alleged adding “This needs a CBI inquiry.”

UP Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam has said that use of imported coal would entail an additional expenditure to the tune of Rs 11,000 crore a year making it necessary to increase power price by Rs 1 per unit. The corporation has sought the state government’s nod before it floats tenders for the procurement of foreign coal.