Indian thermal power plants blend 7 MTs imported coal during April-June

Following the Center's direction for blending foreign coal to overcome scarcity, thermal power plants (TPPs) blended about seven million tonnes (MTs) of imported coal between April and June 2022.

The Power Ministry ordered all Generation Companies (Gencos), including IPPs, to mix imported coal for power generation in April because of the rise in energy demand and the inadequacy of domestic coal resources to meet demand.

Domestic coal-powered plants have a reserve supply for more than nine days remaining as of June 24, while imported coal-powered plants have supplies remaining for about 12 days.

India expects to import about 59 MT of coal for blending at power plants in the fiscal year (FY2023), while inbound shipments for June are likely to be in the range of 4.8–5 MT.

State-run miner Coal India Ltd (CIL) announced a global tender earlier this month to buy 2.42 MT of the significant product for July to September of FY2023.

It was completed a week after getting indents from 19 independent power plants (IPPs) and seven state GENCOS. Overall, CIL must import about 12 MT of coal until July 2023.

Imports of coal peaked at 248 MT in FY2020 before falling to 215 MT in FY2021 and 209 MT in FY2022. Power Sector imports, which fell from 69 MT in FY2020 to 45 MT in FY2021 and then even lower to 27 MT in FY2022, are substantially to blame for the fall in FY2022.

RK Singh, the Power Minister, told the media that they blended seven MTs of imported coal for April through June 2022, which adds up to 10 MT compared to domestic coal because imported coal has 1.4 times higher GCV than domestic coal.

He said with NTPC, DVC, and several States, they still have about 2.5 to 3 MT in stock.

The Power Minister informed that many states expressed interest in Coal India's import auctions.

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