The Union Power Ministry has listed four reasons for the depletion of coal stocks, after chief ministers of many states including Delhi and Punjab flagged the issue of coal shortage at power plants. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the national capital could face a power crisis due to coal shortage and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene so that coal and gas can be diverted to generating plants which supply electricity to the national capital.
According to a statement released by the Ministry of Power, an inter-Ministerial sub-group led by the Ministry of Coal has been monitoring the coal stock situation twice a week as the shortage in supply has threatened power outage in many parts of the country, Livemint reported.
The Ministry listed out four reasons for the depletion of coal stocks at the power plant end. They are:
– Unprecedented increase in demand for electricity due to the revival of the economy post reopening after Covid-19 restrictions.
– Heavy rains in coal mine areas during September this year, affecting the coal production as well as dispatch of coal from mines.
– Increase in the prices of imported coal to unprecedented high level leading to a substantial reduction in power generation from imported coal-based power plants leading to more dependence on domestic coal.
– Non-building of adequate coal stocks before the onset of Monsoon.
The reasons were listed out in a statement released by the Ministry. It also listed out that the increasing demands and consumption of the electricity also hurt the supply.
“The daily consumption of electricity has crossed beyond 4 Billion units per day and 65 per cent to 70 per cent of the demand is being met by coal-fired power generation only, thereby increasing dependence on coal,” the power ministry statement said.
The statement added that the total coal consumption in the month of August-September this year has increased by 18 percent in comparison to the corresponding period in 2019.
India relies heavily on thermal power plants for its electricity needs and therefore coal remains as the major fuel behind India’s electricity supply. It is the second largest importer, consumer and producer of coal, and has the world’s fourth largest reserves. It mainly imports from Indonesia, Australia and South Africa.
The power ministry said that the imported coal price of Indonesian coal jumped from $60 per ton in March-2021 to $160 per ton (in September/October 2021) of 5000 GAR (Gross as received) coal.
The reduction of imported coal is compensated by the domestic coal for power generation, hence increasing the demand for domestic coal further, the statement said.
“As compared to 2019, there has been a 43.6 per cent reduction in power generation from imported coal which led to extra demand of 17.4 MT of domestic coal during Apr-Sept, 2021,” it added.
There has also been issues of heavy dues of coal companies from certain states including Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, UP, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the Power Ministry added.
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