The Power Ministry has asked the Coal Ministry to raise the production of PSU miners—Coal India (CIL) and Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL)—by 10–12 per cent in FY23 in a bid to ensure uninterrupted power supply and prevent outages.

This comes as coal reserves at domestic coal-based (DCB) power plants are barely enough for eight days.

“While coal production from the power sector’s captive mines is expected to go up by 43 per cent to 120 million tonnes (MT) in FY23, the output from CIL and SCCL is likely to go up by only 4-6 percent,” a source said.

For FY22, CIL provided 540 MT of coal to the power sector, while SCCL provided another 53.7 MT. According to projections, the dispatches to the power sector are expected to be 565 MT by CIL and 57 MT by SCCL in the current financial year, he added.

Another source said that while captive coal mines in the power sector are making an all-out effort to raise production by as much as 40 per cent in FY23, the coal sector under the ministry of coal should also do its bit and raise output by at least 10-12 per cent so that the supply crunch can be ironed out.”

A mere 10 per cent growth from last year’s base will translate into a combined supply of nearly 660 MT for the current year. The Power Ministry has informally taken this up with the Coal Ministry; a formal communication may follow suit, he added.

Coal Production

Meanwhile, the coal ministry said that during the first half of May, coal production increased to 33.94 MT, achieving a growth of 36.23 per cent over the production of 24.91 MT a year ago. Total coal dispatch stood at 37.18 MT, recording an increase of 15.87 per cent during the same period.

Total coal despatches (including non-CIL coal producing units) have been to the tune of 71.77 MT for April 2022, a growth of 9.39 per cent on a year-on-year basis. It added that total coal production had increased to 67 MT in April 2022, registering an impressive growth of 29.80 per cent.

The country’s largest coal miner recorded its highest monthly coal production of 53.47 MT in April 2022, with a growth of 27.64 per cent on a Y-o-Y basis. As on May 15, CIL’s production stood at 26.35 MT, an increase of 34.44 per cent Y-o-Y.

The total dispatches from CIL have gone up to 57.50 MT in April from 54.23 MT in April 2021, indicating an increase of 6.03 per cent. As per the consolidated figures, overall dispatches (including non-CIL production) to power have been at a level of 61.69 MT as compared to 52.32 MT in April 2021, recording an increase of 17.91 per cent.

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