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The Coal Ministry has agreed to the Power Ministry’s demand to divert a portion of the coal currently being sold through the auction route to power projects that are stranded without fuel. This will help partially offset the fuel shortage faced by the power sector, the Power Secretary, Mr P. Uma Shankar, said here on Wednesday.
“The Coal Secretary has told us that the Coal Ministry will be able to spare some of the coal that would be sold through e-auctions, provided the developer picks up the coal from the pithead,’’ he told reporters.
Around 10 per cent of the total production of Coal India Ltd (CIL) is sold through e-auctions. The state-owned coal major plans to e-auction around 50 million tonnes of coal in the current fiscal year through March, Mr Shankar said.
It is not clear how much of this would be diverted to power producers.
The price of coal sold through the e-auction route is at market rates and is much higher than the price under long-term sale agreements of Coal India.
The upcoming generation capacity that could be directly impacted by the coal shortage is around 22,120 MW, which could go up to 42,000 MW by 2016-17.
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