Union Coal Minister allays fears of power crisis

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Published : Oct 14, 2021, 12:05 PM IST

Union coal minister assures Centre working on restoration of the coal stock

Union Minister for Coal and Mines Prahlad Joshi, who convened a meeting with the officials after inspecting the three coal mines in Korba-Gevra, Kusmanda and Dipka, said that there is a shortage of coal in the country, but the situation will improve within a few days. He also said that for the past four days, the stock of coal in thermal power is increasing as it is being supplied according to the demand.

Korba (Chhattisgarh): Amid reports of the ongoing coal shortage in the country, Union Minister for Coal and Mines Prahlad Joshi assured that there is no need to panic despite coal shortage, as the government is working on the restoration of the coal stock in the country.

The minister, who convened a meeting with the officials after inspecting the three coal mines in Korba-Gevra, Kusmanda and Dipka, said that there is a shortage of coal in the country, but the situation will improve within a few days. He also said that for the past four days, the stock of coal in thermal power is increasing as it is being supplied according to the demand.

Joshi also said that after reviewing the coal production, orders have been given to officials to make sure that there is no shortage in the generation of electricity. "According to the target, we are supplying two million tonnes per day and the officials have assured me that this will continue in the future as well. The price of coal has also increased in the international market. Apart from this, the post-Covid economy is gaining momentum. Due to this, the demand for electricity has also increased, which has led to a situation like the coal crisis. I am not saying that there is no shortage. But we have taken concrete steps to overcome the crisis," Joshi said.

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Chhattisgarh alone provides 20 per cent of the coal requirement of the entire country. As such, a large part of the country depends on Chhattisgarh for coal. Coal India Limited had set a target of producing one billion tonnes of coal by 2023 from coal mines across the country and the production at present is 650 million tonnes. Keeping this in view, the expansion of the Gevra mine has been in demand directly from 49 to 70 million tonnes per annum, but there are many problems with this expansion as well. NTPC, BALCO, DSPM, Korba East, West as well as Chhattisgarh State Electricity Board and NTPC together have the capacity to generate more than 6000 MW of electricity in Korba. All these together produce an average of 3,650 MW of electricity per day. At present all these power plants have only three to four days of coal stock left.

On one hand, coal is not being supplied from coal mines to power plants as per the demand, while the demand for electricity has also increased in the state these days. Generally, the demand for electricity from all over the state is between 1600 ad 2000 MW. At present, this demand has reached up to 3,000 MW. Electricity is also supplied from the state's power plants to Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana. If the condition of the power plant remains like this, then the power crisis may deepen in these states.

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The statement comes after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman stated that there is no shortage and termed these as “baseless”, saying India is a power surplus country. Nirmala said that Minister for Power RK Singh went on record just two days ago when he said absolutely baseless information is floating around that there is probably a shortage of coal, shortage of other inventories, which will lead to a sudden gap in the supply-demand situation in the energy consumption."

Earlier, India’s total coal production registered a marginal decline of 2.02% to 716.084 million tonnes during the last fiscal year. The country had produced 730.874 million tonnes (MT) of coal in the financial year 2020, according to provisional statistics of 2020-21 of the Coal Ministry.

Of the total production of 716.084 MT, 671.297 MT was non-coking coal and the remaining 44.787 MT was coking coal, it said. Of the total output, a chunk of 685.951 MT was produced by the public sector and the remaining production of 30.133 MT was from the private sector.

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