Indian Industry Plus A Pratisrutiplus Suppliment
As on 09.12.2018, the total coal stock available at 124 power plants, which are monitored in Central Electricity Authority (CEA) on daily basis, was 14.4 MT which is sufficient to run the power plants for an average of 9 days. As per CEA report, coal based power generation has been 99.16 % of the programme during April-Nov 2018.
Coal and coke, being under Open General License as per the import policy of the Government, are imported by various consumers and traders as per their requirements. However, Ministry of Power has on 30.05.2018, advised to Energy Department of State Governments to assess their requirement in respect of import of coal and plan accordingly.
With the multiple synchronistic efforts including enabling legislation, clear and transparent policy and greater autonomy for constituent units with an emphasis on quality, safety and environment protection, all India raw coal production was increased from 565.77 MT in 2013-14 to 676.48 MT in 2017-18 (4 years), an absolute increase of 110.71 MT as compared to increase of coal production of 33.73 MT between 2009-10 and 2013-14 (4 years).
In 2018-19 (up to 30.11.2018), Coal India Limited (CIL) supplied 315.94 Million Tonnes (MT) of coal achieving a growth of more than 8% in coal supply to the power sector over the supply of 291.78 MT in the corresponding period of last year. Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) has supplied 35.04 MT of coal to power plants (up to 30.11.2018). The increased dispatch during this period has helped coal based power generation to achieve positive growth of 5.50 % as compared to last year and coal based generation has been 99.16% of the programme.
In order to ensure the quality of despatched coal, system of independent 3rd party sampling of coal supplied to power sector was started. A total quantity of 548 MT of coal from CIL and 53 MT of coal from SCCL is covered under 3rd Party Sampling.
Specific coal consumption, a measure of coal required to produce a unit of electricity, has been on the decline leading to progressively lesser fuel requirement for production of a unit of energy. The specific coal consumption in Thermal Power Plants has reduced from 0.714 Kg/Kwh in 2010-11 to 0.642 Kg/Kwh in 2017-18.
Further, under the provision of coal Mines (Special Provision) Act, 2015, so far 85 coal Mines have been allocated out of which 48 coal mines have been allocated for specified end-use Power. Out of these 48 coal mines, 42 have been allocated to Public Sector Companies & 6 to the private sector.
In case of production from CIL, high capacity mines are being planned with deployment of high capacity/high productivity equipment in Open Cast (OC) and Under Ground (UG) mines. Such methods include mining with Continuous Miners and Powered Support Long Wall (PSLW) in UG mining and for OC mining, state of the art HEMMs like 42 cum shovel with 240 T Rear dumper, Surface Miners, draglines, Operator Independent Truck Dispatch System (OITDS), In-pit crushing and conveying are being introduced.
This information was given by the Minister of Coal & Railways, Shri Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha
