Coal India Ltd. (CIL) said on Monday that coal supplies to the power sector rose 15.6% to 49.7 million tonnes last month as demand for dry fuel from power generation plants was strong. She emphasized that she plans to further expand her broadcasts, especially on power plants, in the coming months.
The statement comes at a time when several parts of the country are grappling with a power crisis.
“With continued intense demand for coal fueled by an upward spiral in power generation, CIL increased shipments to the country’s power plants to 49.7 million tonnes (MT) in April 2022. This is 6.7 MT more delivery compared to April 2021,” the Maharatna firm said.
With higher outputs, CIL is aiming for a further increase in deliveries, particularly to power plants, in the coming months.
Coal India, which accounts for more than 80% of domestic coal production, is one of the major suppliers of fossil fuels to the power sector.
On average, PSU shipped 1.66t of coal per day to utilities in April, which rose to 1.73t in the last week. Average supply per day is in line with what CIL had projected for this sector in Q1 FY23.
Coal production rose 27.6% year-on-year to 53.5 MT last month.
All CIL subsidiaries have grown year by year. Mahanadi Coalfields, South Eastern Coalfields, Northern Coalfields and Western Coalfields significantly increased production in April.
“Coal production in April 22 was the highest so far this month, surpassing the previous peak of 45.3 tonnes set in April 19,” it said.
Total CIL offtake rose sharply to 57.5 t in April, registering a 6% growth compared to 54.2 t in the same month last year.
The decline was 4 MT more than the month’s issue.
Importantly, CIL saw 16% growth in Overload Remediation (OBR). The Company mined 132.8 million cubic meters of OBR during the month.
OBR is a key performance criterion used in open pit mining to remove topsoil and expose the coal seam for faster coal recovery in the future. It also improves mine geometry and makes mines more reliable.
The government had previously said that the current energy crisis was mainly due to the sharp decline in power generation from various energy sources, rather than the unavailability of domestic coal.
Coal Minister AK Jain had attributed the low coal stocks at power plants to several factors, including increased electricity demand due to the post-COVID-19 economic boom, the early summer, the rise in gas and imported coal prices, and sharp declines in coastal thermal power generation.
