Coal India Braced To Meet Power Sector's Demand, Says Chairman

Coal India Limited (CIL) Chairman Pramod Agrawal on Monday said that the company is ready to meet its part of committed dry fuel supplies to the power sector. His comments came as the monsoon season has already hit many parts of the country and 

He said that the company will also not spare any effort in pushing coal output.

 As monsoon has hit many parts of the country, Coal India chairman Pramod Agrawal said that the Maharatna company is braced up to meet its part of committed coal supplies to the power sector in the coming months and stressed that building up dry fuel stock timely by electricity generating plants will be crucial.

People in many parts of the country faced power outages at the beginning of the summer season this year due to the shortage of coal supplies at various thermal plants.

"Timely stock build-up by the power plants when coal is available will be crucial. We are gearing up to meet our part of committed supplies to power sector in the ensuing months," Mr Agrawal said.

Stating that the company is targeting to close the first quarter with 35 million tonnes incremental production compared to same quarter of last year, he said that the company's output tempo is progressing in this direction.

"We will not spare any effort in pushing up the output and off take," he added.

Terming the recent coal shortages as "misnomer", Mr Agrawal said that Coal India's pitheads are stocked with around 46 million tonnes of coal, whereas coal stock at power plants stands at around 24 million tonnes.

The CIL Chairman said that the demand-supply mismatch witnessed in the recent past was on account of three reasons. Firstly, there was an unforeseen escalation in power demand on the back of strong post-pandemic economic revival, secondly, the blazing summer heat across the northern plains of the country further accelerated the demand.

Finally, the international coal prices which are simmering over for past many months have deterred imports by international coal-based power plants, he explained.

"The first quarter is usually highly productive for us. We have registered nearly 29 per cent production growth during the first two months of current fiscal at 108 million tonnes over same period last year, the highest ever for this period," Mr Agrawal said.

Concurrently, supply to power sector at 102 million tonnes grew by 16.7 per cent.

CIL aims to supply 565 million tonnes to the power sector during the current fiscal and the company's efforts are oriented to meet this, he noted.