: Govt asks CIL to raise coal supply to power plants during Puja #FinanceIndia #StockMarketNEWS #Business PTI New Delhi The government has asked state-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) to augment the

@StockMarketNEWS Fri 15 Oct, 2021

Posted in: #Business #FinanceIndia #StockMarketNEWS

Govt asks CIL to raise coal supply to power plants during Puja #FinanceIndia #StockMarketNEWS #Business
PTI

New Delhi

The government has asked state-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) to augment the coal supply to power producers to 1. 55-1. 6 million tonnes (MT) per day around the Durga Puja period, and to further scale it to 1. 7 MT per day after October 20, according to a source.

The development assumes significance in the wake of the country’s power plants grappling with coal shortages in the country at a time when the festival season has already begun.

“Yesterday (Monday), there was a meeting in Delhi and Coal India was asked to do (supply of) 1. 55-1. 6 million tonnes (of coal to power sector) per day around Puja time; and after October 20, the public sector undertaking is supposed to do 1. 7 MT per day,??? the source privy to the development said.

The coal dispatches by CIL to the power sector on Monday stood at 1. 615 MT.

In a country where 69 per cent of the total electricity generation is coal-based, CIL empowers the nation’s power sector. Around 80 per cent of CIL’s total supplies are catered to the power sector, according to a recent report of the firm.

The source said the power plants are getting the amount of coal that is required for generation but the stocks are not building up as they did not replenish them.

The coal stocks at power plants will start building up from November 1 onwards, the source said.

“They (power plants) didn’t replenish their stocks. Many of them took that risk. So, they are paying for it now,??? the source added.

Coal India Ltd (CIL), he said, had 100 million tonnes of the fuel stock at the end of the financial year 2020-21.

“Why did that stock accrue is because people (power plants) did not take their designated supplies. They thought that why to waste money right now when there is no requirement,??? he said.

CIL had on Monday said it has scaled up the supply of coal to power utilities across the country to 1. 51 million tonnes (MT) per day during the past four days of the current month, and stressed that it is building up adequate evacuation logistics to transport the dry fuel.

The average supply to coal-fired power plants during October so far has been 1. 43 MT per day, which has now been augmented to 1. 51 MT in the past four days.

CIL had added that it is marshalling all its efforts to bridge the demand-supply gap to the extent possible. With 40 million tonnes stock at its pitheads and increasing, the availability of coal will notbe a problem.

CIL Director (Marketing) S N Tiwary had said, “The aim is to ramp up supplies to the power sector even higher, which we hope to achieve after Puja. Once the despatch rate is maintained, the stock build-up will help tide over the tight situation.