A. Harikumar
Worrisome reports of dwindling coal stocks in India – especially with power generating companies – resulting in power cuts are seen in Indian media frequently, of late. If there is coal shortage in India power shortage is sure to happen as almost 70 percent of power generating stations in the country are fired by coal.
However, whenever apprehensions are raised government issues clarifications that the country has enough coal stocks and there is no reason to worry. There are also reports that India is trying to import coal from Russia, which the latter has offered at discounted rates. Is there huge shortage of coal in India? Are the reports of power cuts true? If so what is the reason? Only authorities can answer with authenticity. But based on the data available in the public domain any layman can reach informed conclusions. Let’s try to understand the reality:
What industries say?
December 2021: Federation of Indian Mineral Industries shot off a letter to PM saying shortage of coal still prevailed in the country. Three months ago three states had been hit by power outages and then the finance secretary Somanathan came up with the explanation that the shortage was temporary.
Power and non power sectors complain about supply demand mismatch. Media quoting National Power Portal says coal stocks for just 9.8 days available with the ministry. Which is 38 percent of the normative 24 days stock. Some state owned power units have less stock and independent power producers at states are complaining of worse scenario. National level independent power producers have just 9 days stock.
Aluminium Association of India says since August 2021, they have been supplied with coal to satisfy only 40-50 per cent of their needs. Ministry says shortage is a seasonal phenomenon and also says it’s the non availability of railway rakes that scuttle transport of coal.
Minister for coal replies
On April 23, Union Minister for Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi rebutted reports of coal shortage leading to power crisis in the country, Mr. Joshi said that the available stocks are sufficient for a month and stocks are getting replenished on a daily basis with record production.
Mr. Joshi produced statistics to buttress his claims: He said at present 72.50 Million Tons (MT) of coal are available at different sources of Coal India Ltd (CIL), Singareni Colleries Company Ltd (SCCL), coal washeries, etc. and there is no shortage of coal in the country. In a tweet, the Minister said that 22.01 Million Ton coal is available with Thermal Power Plants(TPP).
It may be recalled that as per the provisional data of the Ministry of Coal, the total coal production during the financial year 2021-22 has touched 777.23 Million Ton (MT) compared to 716 MT during 2020-21, recording a growth of 8.55 per cent. Coal India Ltd (CIL) production has gone up by 4.43 per cent from 596.24 MT in 2020-21 to 622.64 MT during the financial year 2021-22.
Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) with an increase of 28.55 per cent growth produced 65.02 MT during 2021-22 compared to 50.58 MT the previous year. At the same time, coal production of captive mines has gone up to 89.57 MT. During 2020-21 it was only 69.18 MT.
The minister added that the total coal dispatch during 2021-22 touched the figure of 818.04 MT against the figure of 690.71 MT the previous year, an increase of 18.43 per cent. During the period, CIL dispatched 661.85 MT coal against 2020-21 figure of 573.80 MT.
Conclusion
The data given by the minister hints that there is no shortage of coal. However it is also true that power-cuts are happening in many states. There seems to be delay in transporting coal to the generating stations. It’s a fact that after the onset of summer demand has increased and that is leading to many problems in generating stations. The glitches to generators or transmission lines are not repaired on time. There are many more such issues.
Recently there was a power outage in Tamil Nadu and the state power minister blamed the union government for that. The union government responded that since the power generators which supply electricity to the national grid have been working continuously for 100 days it had to be switched off. A right to information activist in Tamil Nadu Neelakanta Pillai said Tamil Nadu could have avoided the outage by switching on state owned generating stations which have been remaining shut off, but it failed to do so. According to Maharashtra chief minister ten states in the country are now facing shortage of power. It seems a host of factors are leading to power cuts in many states, and there is no shortage of coal.