Power plants that have signed fuel supply agreements (FSA) with Coal India and those with captive mines can now participate in e-auctions to purchase coal.
In a letter to Coal India over the weekend, the Ministry for Coal said, “…it has been decided that those power plants may also be eligible for coal supply under the e-auction windows which have FSAs/MoUs and also those who have captive coal mines.” Such plants will be able to purchase coal from the e-auctions to the extent of their shortfall between their total requirement and availability through FSAs and their captive coal mines.
The Coal Ministry letter prescribing broad guidelines for the e-auctions states that before every round of e-auction, power plants shall provide a self-certification of their power purchase agreements over the short-, medium- and long-term with state electricity distribution utilities or PTC India or other power exchanges.
In the first round, those with long-term and medium-term power purchase agreements will be eligible to participate. If they have existing FSAs or captive mines, then such plants can buy the shortfall in coal between availability and requirement through the e-auction route.