Operate imported coal plants at full capacity, says Centre

Highlighting that demand for power has gone up by almost 20 per cent in energy terms, the Ministry of Power on Thursday ordered all imported coal power plants to operate at full capacity. Looking at the emergency situation, the Union Ministry directed all States and all generating companies based on domestic coal to import at least 10 per cent of their requirement of coal for blending.

In an official order by the ministry, it read, "The demand for power has gone up by almost 20%. 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. Because of the mismatch between the daily consumption of coal for power generation and the daily receipt of coal at the power plant, the stocks of coal at the power plant have been declining at a worrisome rate."

"The international price of coal has gone up in an unprecedented fashion. It is currently around USD140 per tonne. As a result, the import of coal for blending, which was of the order of 37 mn tonnes in 2015-16 has gone down, leading to more pressure on domestic coal. The imported coal-based generation capacity is around 17,600 MW. The PPAS for imported coal-based plants do not have adequate provision for passthrough of the entire increase in coal price. At present price of imported coal, running of imported coalbased plants and supply of power at PPA rates will lead to huge losses to the generators and hence the generators were not willing to run those plants," it read.

"All imported coal-based power plants shall operate and generate power to their full capacity. Where the imported coal-based plant is under NCLT, the Resolution Professional shall take steps to make it functional," read the order copy.