Coal transportation is in progress at CIL’s coal mines in Bharkunda area of Ramgarh district.
The government may allow power plants facing fuel shortage to blend imported coal up to 10 per cent and run their plants at optimum capacity to prevent any losses. As part of an exercise to prevent power plants from reducing their supply due to rising demand, the government has, as per reports, decided to allow coal-based plants to import fuel and blend up to 10 per cent of the total requirement.
The practice of mixing local coal with imported coal has been practiced in the past to obtain better calorific value and improve the efficiency of power plants. NTPC, the country’s largest power producer, has also used blended coal in its power plants to compensate for the low heat generated by the high ash content of local coal.
However, power sector analysts said that with imported coal prices touching the ceiling, prices of widely used Indonesian coal rose to $180-190 a tonne from $60-70 in April, according to power producers. To use this expensive will be difficult. coal without raising electricity tariffs to compensate for the higher cost. One of the reasons for the power crisis in the country is low coal imports due to highly prevailing prices.
The development on import of coal comes at a time when Coal India Ltd said its dispatches are higher than last year and the problem of shortage in the country will be addressed in a few days.
In a bid to tackle the crisis, the Center on Tuesday warned states that if it is not being used to meet the needs of consumers, but is being sold on power exchanges at a higher rate for profit, then They will cut off their share of unconnected power.
Several states including Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan, Assam and Madhya Pradesh are reporting severe stress in their power situation due to fuel shortage at coal-fired plants, while rapidly increasing demand after the pandemic . Improvement in economic activity.
A statement by the Ministry of Power said that it has been brought to its notice that some states are not supplying electricity to their consumers and are imposing load shedding. Along with this, electricity is also being sold at a higher price in the power exchange. The latest action on allocated power is to prevent misuse of this share of energy.
The government is also looking at accelerating production to the renewable energy sector to meet the unprecedented increase in demand. But the situation in coal-fired power stations remains grim, with 115 of the 135 plants having coal reserves for only three to four days.
Read more: Current situation arose due to states ignoring Centre’s letters on coal reserves: Sources
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