Power sector received 80% of despatches from CIL: Ministry

Coal stock in power plants lower this year, says ICRA

Indian laborers work at a coal depot on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012. India's opposition lawmakers have been demanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh resign after an audit found the government lost huge sums of money by selling coal fields without competitive bidding. The auditor's report estimated that private companies got a windfall profit of $34 billion because of the low prices they paid for the coal fields. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Coal India on Friday said that 80% of its coal despatches up to September 13, amounting to 1.2 million tonnes (mt), had gone to the power sector.

“On September 13, 2017, the total coal despatch of Coal India Limited was 1.505 MT,” the Ministry of Coal said in a release. “The total coal despatch on September 13, 2017, to the power sector was about 1.2 mt. A total of 225.9 railway rakes of coal were despatched to different consumers out of which 212.9 railway rakes were despatched to the power sector alone.”

“The despatch to the power sector was around 19% more as compared to the same period of September 2016,” the release added.

“Our analysis of the official data as of end-August showed that the coal stock in power plants was significantly lower this year than in the previous year,” Jayanta Roy, senior VP and group head, Corporate Sector Ratings, ICRA told The Hindu . “In some plants, it was critically low. At the same time, the rates of power at the power exchanges have hardened recently, also indicating a possible shortage in generation level.”