Centre urges States to direct power generation companies to take immediate steps to import coal for blending to meet requirement during Monsoon

The Centre has urged the states to direct power generation company, Gencos to take immediate steps to import coal for blending in order to meet their requirement during Monsoon season. Power Minister R. K. Singh has written a letter to states in this regard.
In a separate letter to Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal, Mr Singh has expressed concern that tender process for coal import has either not started or not completed in these states.

Earlier, the Ministry of Power has advised State Gencos to import 10 per cent of coal requirement for blending purposes. States were also advised to place order by 31st of this month. Mr Singh further asked State Gencos to lift entire quantity of coal offered under Road-cum-Rail mode expeditiously to build coal stock. He stressed that in case of failure on either account, it would not be possible to give additional domestic coal to make up the shortfall. He added that if the allocation is not lifted then, it will be allocated to other needy State Gencos.

The Minister highlighted that due to increase in demand and consumption of electricity, the share of coal-based generation has increased and the total coal consumption by power plants has also increased. He added that materialization of domestic coal is only about 88 per cent of total requirements. In order to ensure minimum required coal stocks in power plants before the onset of monsoon, the Minister has directed that the thermal power plants owned by State Gencos must use all the sources to maintain adequate coal stock.