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Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said a total of 10 million tonnes of coal from Coal India (CIL) will be auctioned to the power sector.
Central government controlled generation utilities like NTPC have to participle in the auction for fresh linkages. State government run electricity generation utilities will continue to get linkages on an ad-hoc basis.
Separate auction windows Addressing members of the Kolkata-based Bharat Chamber of Commerce, he said separate auction windows would be opened for participation of generation utilities having power purchase agreement (PPA) with State electricity distribution utilities (discom) and those that do not have such PPAs.
For plants that already have a PPA in place; the base price of fuel will be set 20 per cent higher than the existing CIL price. However, plants which are idling due to lack of buyers are expected to sell electricity in the open market. For this category, the base price will be set 40 per cent higher than the Coal India prices.
The government has already decided to scrap the existing linkages to non-regulated sectors including cement, steel, and aluminium. These units now have to participate in the auction to get assured fuel supply from CIL.
“There could be some stress due to current international conditions, which will ease over time,” Goyal said at another meeting with the Coal Consumers’ Association of India (CCAI).
The Minister, however, said a policy is being formulated to meet the entire fuel requirement (for captive generation) of the fertiliser sector.
“I will be happy to consider meeting 100 per cent fuel requirement of the fertiliser sector,” he said.
No bailout for discoms Responding to a query, the Minister ruled out any bailout for discoms which have run up huge debts.
A committee headed by the power sector is now mapping the sickness of the discoms.
“I am considering a high level committee comprising all stakeholders to take up issues with the discoms on a case by case basis. There will be no bailout of discoms. The Centre will be handholding them to recovery,” Goyal said.
Earlier in the day, the Minister inaugurated a facility, Premashraya, to accommodate patients and their relatives visiting the Tata Medical Centre in Kolkata.
The facility is a ₹41-crore CSR initiative of CIL.
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