Have 4 days’ stock of coal and that is sufficient: Government
The Ministry of Coal announced this afternoon that there is a coal stock of 72 lakh tonnes at the power plant end and that is sufficient for four days, though several states including Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Pubjab and Tamil Nadu have raised concerns that they would face blackouts, as the coal shortage is affecting power generation.
An official press release by the Coal Ministry claimed that Coal India Limited (CIL) has 400 lakh tonnes of coal at its end. CIL supplies coal to the power plants in the country.
Experts in the power sector and the coal industry have flayed the Union Government for the mismanagement of the coal requirement of power plants in the country.
Anil Swarup, a former with the Government of India tweeted asking if people are aware that CIL had a reserve of RS 40,000 crore in 2015, which is now around Rs 10,000; that the CIL stock was trading at Rs 400 in 2016, which is now trading at Rs 200; that the CIL does not have a regular Chairperson for over a year, the organisation has been pushed to invest in fertiliser plants and managers of CIL were asked to monitor school toilets!
All India Congress Committee General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted that the coal is over and those who have blackened their hands in coal deals are waiting for the (country) to be in darkness. Surjewala’s tweet added that after made to pay higher rates for water petrol and diesel, people will now have to pay a higher (tariff) for electricity. “This has been made possible for “saheb’s” friends, the tweet stated.
Yesterday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pointing out that the prevailing coal shortage situation that is continuing since August/September 21 for the third month in a row, which has affected the power generation from the major Central Generating Plants supplying power to NCT of Delhi.
Kejriwal wrote, “the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission CERC Tariff Regulations (Regulation 34) mandates the Generating stations to maintain a coal stock of 10 days and 20 days for pithead and non-pithead stations respectively.” According to the Delhi Chief Minister, of the five plants generating electricity for the state, only one had coal stock to last for four days, three plants stock have a day’s stock and one plant has zero coal stock.
The Coal Ministry stated that domestic coal-based power generation has grown by nearly 24% in this year (till September 2021) based on a robust supply from the coal companies. “The daily average coal requirement at the power plants is about 18.5 Lakh tonnes of coal per day whereas the daily coal supply has been around 17.5 lakh tonnes per day,” the official release said.
The press release of the Coal Ministry has then given immature and childish arguments on the coal shortage, which are not worth reporting here.
India has 135 coal-based power generation plants. India has the fourth largest coal reserves in the world, yet is the world’s second largest importer of coal.