While maintaining that coal stock at power plants was sufficient enough for four days, the Union Coal Ministry said on Sunday that there was ample coal available in the country to meet the demands of thermal power plants.

The Ministry said that Coal India Ltd has about 400 lakh tones of coal available, which is being supplied to power plants. “Any fear of disruption in power supply is entirely misplaced,” the Ministry claimed.

“The domestic coal based power generation has grown by nearly 24% in this year based on a robust supply from the coal companies,” the Ministry said. The daily average coal requirement at the power plants is about 18.5 Lakh tonnes of coal per day whereas the daily coal supply has been around 17.5 lakh tonnes per day, it said.

“But due to extended monsoons, the dispatches were constrained. The coal available at the power plants is a rolling stock which gets replenished by the supplies from the coal companies on a daily basis,” the Ministry said.

“Therefore, any fear of coal stocks depleting at the power plant end is erroneous. In fact this year, domestic coal supply has substituted imports by a substantial measure,” it added.

Despite heavy rains in the coal field areas, CIL had supplied more than 255 MT coal to the power sector in this year which is the highest ever H-1 supply from CIL to the power sector, the Ministry said.

Out of the total coal supply from all sources, present coal supply from CIL to power sector is more than 14 lakh tonnes per day and with the receding rains, this supply has already increased to 15 lakh tonnes and is set to increase to more than 16 lakh tonnes per day by the end of October 2021. The supply from SCCL and captive coal blocks shall contribute to another 3 lakh plus tonnes of coal every day.

Domestic coal supplies have supported power generation in a major way despite heavy monsoons, low coal imports and a steep hike in power demand due to economic recovery. It is expected that coal supplies are set to be a record high in the current financial year.

Another reason for shortage of coal supply was the steep rise in international prices of coal, as a result supply of power even under PPAs by import based power plants has reduced by almost 30 %, said a senior officer of the Power Ministry.

But at the same time, domestic coal based power supply has gone up nearly 24 % in H1 of this year, the officer said.

He said the comfortable coal position in the country could be judged from the fact that the CIL has been supplying more than 2.5 lakh tonnes (apprx.) everyday to meet the demand of non power industries including Aluminium, Cement, and Steel.