Coal supply situation improves over last 7 months

30th April 2018

The coal supply situation in the country has improved moderately in the past seven months, with the average indigenous coal stock (AICS) at power plants increasing from 7.38 million tonnes (mt) in October last year to around 16.7 mt in April 2018. However, 27 power plants — located far from coal mines — still have a stock of less than seven days as on April 24 due to transportation issues.

“The opening coal stock in this financial year has improved. On April 1, the opening stock was around 16.1 mt, which has reached around 16.7 mt as on April 16. The number of critical plants have reduced, too. However, the coal supply situation can improve further if the transportation issues are resolved for non-pithead plants,” said a senior Coal India Ltd (CIL) executive on the condition of anonymity. Non-pithead plants are the ones that are located far from coal mines.

AICS in April 2018 so far stands at around 16.7 mt, about 30 per cent less than in the year-ago period, which was at 24.47 mt. According to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), on April 24, 27 non-pithead power plants had a coal stock of less than seven days. On January 22 this year, 53 power plants had a stock of less than seven days.

The increased coal supply in the past seven months has not improved the plant load factor (PLF) of the private sector power units. PLF is a ratio of output of a plant to the maximum output it could produce. According to the CEA, the PLF for private plants has fallen from 56.96 per cent in October last year to 52.29 per cent in March this year.

However, PLF of the Central power plants have improved from 69.17 per cent in October 2017 to 78.47 per cent in March 2018. State government-owned power projects witnessed significant jump in utilisation of their installed capacity to 68.66 per cent in March 2018, compared with 54.35 per cent in October 2017.

During a January 22 meeting chaired by Minister of State for Power R K Singh, Indian Railways pointed out that there is a constraint in movement of rakes out of Northern Coalfields Ltd and doubling of Singrauli-Katni section would be required for enhancing number of rakes from this area to distant power stations.

The minutes stated: “Railways confirmed that they would increase the loading from NCL from 14 rakes per day to around 19 rakes per day for long distance power stations.”

The CIL official told The Indian Express: “We have told the railways that for plants in far off areas — ones located in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana — you should supply coal through rail. The plants that are at shorter distances should be supplied through road or MGR (merry-go-round) system. But they have their own limitations that they cannot supply more than 17-18 rakes per day.”

He added: “We are trying some other methods currently. We are trying to supply plants with the help of road-cum-rail route. So, for some non-pithead plants, the coal is being taken from the mine through road to a railway point. From this point, the railways can easily supply coal to the non-pithead plant.”

Source: THE INDIAN EXPRESS