A spike in power prices in the spot market has put the Power Ministry in a fix. Given that both the Ministries of Coal and Power had been claiming adequate supplies, they are unable to account for the price surge.
Senior officials in the Power Ministry said the government is addressing the problem. “Coal supply needs to be in sync with demand for power, which is 10,000 MW more than the corresponding period last year,” Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and Renewable Energy RK Singh told BusinessLine .
In February, the average number of rakes supplied was 259, and in March it was 270. “From April, we have given a target of 288,” Singh said.
Power demand grew 9.1 per cent in February, and about 6 per cent in March. “On an average we are growing at 6.5 per cent,” Singh added. According to the Indian Energy Exchange, in March this year, the average market price for the day-ahead market stood at ₹ 4.02 a unit. This was 57 per cent higher than the ₹2.56 a unit monthly average reported during March 2017. The price in March was higher by 24 per cent over the ₹3.23 per unit average price reported in February.
IEX said the increase in the spot market price was largely on account of the increase in the demand associated with seasonal variation and inadequate availability of coal with thermal generators. During financial year 2017-18, the day-ahead market traded at an average price of ₹3.19 a unit, against ₹2.41 a unit in fiscal 2016-17.
According to the latest data from the Central Electricity Authority, 15 of the country’s 114 thermal power plants had super-critical levels (less than four days) of coal stock as on April 8. Another 12 power plants have critical levels (less than seven days) of coal. Effectively, 17,022 MW of the country’s 1,40,065 MW thermal power plants are at super-critical levels of coal.
The coal supply situation in the western region is most worrisome: 14 power plants are with either critical or super-critical levels of coal.