In a bid to push increased fuel to coal-based thermal power plants having low levels of stock, Coal India Ltd. has decided to temporarily regulate coal movement to the non-power sector, the firm said.
CIL said it had set up a round-the-clock Initiatives, Monitoring and Control cell to watch the situation. Currently, 21 power plants are running with low level of coal stocks, of which nine are at a super-critical level (less than three days’ stock), enquiries revealed.
Production below target
The move comes at a time when Coal India’s production, at 193.1 million tonnes, slipped on its target for April-August. However CIL was able to push forth 225.4 million tonnes to the user industry. “This was possible due to a 32.3 million tonnes drawdown from stocks — one of the highest-ever,” a senior official said. But, although offtake showed a 6.6 % growth , it was still below the target set for the period.
In the wake of poor demand and high stocks with the power sector last fiscal, CIL had ended the year with stocks of 68.4 million tonnes, the official said.
“CIL improved dispatches from its coal sidings (by increasing the number of sidings) and also adopted a road-cum-rail approach for transporting coal by using its sidings more extensively,” another official said. Increased amounts of coal were also pushed to the pithead plants.
A CIL statement quoted Gopal Singh, who has taken charge as CIL’s CMD from September 1, as saying that the IMC Cell had been activated to avoid any stock crisis at any of the linked power stations. The monitoring plan aims at co-ordination with Railways and Power Utilities and independent power purchasers.
CIL has asked NTPC to prioritise coal movement to the latter’s plants on the basis of stockholding.
