At a time when several parts of the country are facing power blackouts during the high power-demanding summer season, state-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Monday said its dry fuel supply to the power sector rose 15.6 per cent year-on-year to 49.7 million tonnes in April. On the other hand, a senior NTPC official said the power situation currently is not as bad as being projected and the demand rose due to a sudden rise in temperature.
On an average, CIL supplied 1.66 million tonnes (MT) of coal per day to power utilities in April, which sped to 1.73 MT during the last week.
“With the intense demand for coal continuing unabated driven by an upward spiral in the electricity generation CIL pushed up its supplies to power plants of the country to 49.7 million tonnes (MTs) in April 2022. This is 6.7 MTs more supply compared to April 2021 when the power sector’s despatch was 43 MTs,” CIL said.
The senior NTPC official said load shedding will not increase and it has more coal available than last year. “Over 2 MT coal was imported in 2022, while 1.7 MT has already been imported in FY23.”
Its coal import target stands at 20 MT for this financial year, while three MT coal import target for Damodar Valley Corp. The NTPC official said 14 MT captive coal is available and “if we meet 26 MT target for the next year, we won’t need to rely on Coal India”.
CIL on Monday said, “To keep up with the increased appetite for coal, CIL accelerated its production to 53.5 MTs, logging a strong 27.6 percent growth. This is 11.6 MTs higher compared to 41.9 MTs of April’21. All the subsidiaries of CIL have registered year-on-year growth.”
It added that the coal output of April 2022 was the highest ever for the month so far, eclipsing the previous peak of 45.3 MTs achieved in April 2019.
The senior NTPC official said the aim is to use 50 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2032. A new coal plant may also be awarded in Talcher.
The official also said aim is also on the private investment to list renewable energy company NGEL (NTPC Green Energy Limited). The company expects to raise Rs 2,000 crore this year.
The company said, “CIL’s total offtake has risen sharply to 57.5 MT in April 2022 logging a six per cent growth compared with 54.2 MT of the same month last year. The offtake was four MT more than the output of the month.”
CIL said all its subsidiaries have registered year-on-year growth. Mahanadi Coalfields, South Eastern Coalfields, Northern Coalfields, and Western Coalfields significantly raised their production in April.
Last week, peak power shortage rose swiftly last week from a single digit of 5.24 GW on Monday to touch a double-digit of 10.77 GW on Thursday, showing the effects of various factors like low coal stocks at generation plants, heatwave and other issues on the deepening electricity crisis.
Various parts of the country faced electricity cuts. Punjab, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh mainly faced the issue.
Delhi’s peak power demand on Monday clocked 6,194 MW at 3.34 PM; the highest peak power demand ever recorded in the first week of May, according to news agency ANI. Last month as well, Delhi saw a peak of 6,197 MW, an all-time high for the month of April ever.
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