Coal stocks at power plants depleted to 7.2 million tonnes: Prahlad Joshi

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines Prahlad Joshi on Wednesday said in the Lok Sabha that the coal stocks at the power plants in the county depleted to 7.2 million tonnes as on October 8,2021 due to increased demand for power and less generation of power by plants which depend on imported coal.

New Delhi: Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines, Prahlad Joshi on Wednesday said in the Lok Sabha that the coal stocks at the power plants in the county depleted to 7.2 million tonnes as on October 8,2021 due to increased demand for power and less generation of power by plants which depend on imported coal.

Answering questions raised by YSR Congress MP Y S Avinash Reddy, the Union Minister said that heavy rain was also a key reason for the interruption in the supply of coal. He also said that with subsequent increase of coal supply the coal stock has started to get replenished and has reached 16.74 million tonnes as on November 25. The stock is sufficient for nine days.

"Coal India Limited (CIL) has dispatched around 54 MT(million tonnes) more coal during April - October’21 in comparison to the same period of last year. It has dispatched 291.72 MT coal during this period, against 237.75 MT during the same period of last fiscal," said Joshi.

He also said that the Andhra Pradesh Government had requested for supply of coal to meet the demand for power in the state.

"In the current fiscal up to October’21, CIL has supplied 13.24 MT of coal to the Andhra Pradesh-based Power Plants in comparison to the supply of 7.18 MT in the same period of last year. In addition to the above, CIL has offered an additional quantity of 4.97 Lakh Tonnes through Rail-cum-Road mode from its mines to the state Genco to build up adequate stock at Power Plants end," said Joshi.

As for the steps taken to improve coal supplies Joshi said that an Inter-Ministerial Sub-Group comprising of representatives from the Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Railways, Central Electricity Authority (CEA), CIL, and SCCL regularly hold meetings to take various operational decisions to enhance the supply of coal to thermal power plants.