Coal India assures ICPPA of coal supply

8 January 2018

State-owned miner Coal India has assured coal availability to Indian Captive Power Producers Association (ICPPA), whose members include firms from steel and aluminium segment, as they are heavily dependent on the dry fuel.

Coal India chairman and managing director Gopal Singh along with other senior officials held a meeting with members of ICPPA in Delhi on Tuesday, a person privy to the development said. In India, captive power producers’ capacity stands at 40,000 mega watts (MW) and about 30,000 MW is produced by using coal, which is about 75%.

The rest is produced through alternate materials like gas-based and others, ICPPA general secretary Rajiv Agarwal told PTI. “The industry is highly dependent on coal and the government must understand this. There are many plants who are on the verge of shut down. Many may become a non-performing asset (NPA),” he said.

Coal India, in the meeting, said about 71% materialisation of coal was done during April-December 2017 for both integrated power producers (IPPs) and captive power plants (CPPs) and assured there is no shortage of coal.

ICPPA said it is not satisfied by the words of the public sector unit (PSU), who it said is supposed to supply the dry fuel to industry. Agarwal said, “The given figure included dispatches by both rail and road. The share of CPPs rail dispatches is in the range of only 30 to 50% and out of this 30% major supply was given to those plants who were near the pits”.

Even if coal linkage auction is concerned, 41.5 million tonnes (MT) was offered to the CPPs, he said and added, that out this the industry could not bid for 8.5 MT offered at “Magad-Amrapali of CCL (Central Coalfields Ltd)” a place with evacuation constraint.

Railways is also doing “choosy deliveries”. “To meet their loading targets, the zonal railway is making deliveries to plants which are near pits. This is something which is not justified. Captive power producers are already facing shortage from one body of the government, which is Coal India and now this practice of Railways make the matter worse,” he added.

Earlier, the ICPPA had urged the government to ensure coal availability, saying most CPPs are facing severe shortage of the fuel, which may lead to closure of plants. The body had said that the dry fuel must be supplied by Coal India Ltd to CPPs at the same rate at which it is being given to the IPPs.

“There is a shortage of coal for CPPs and the difference in price is also something which we are concerned about,” Agarwal had said.

Source: LIVEMINT