New Delhi: State-run power giant NTPC is looking to procure 10-15 million tonnes of coal from privately owned commercial coal mines to meet its requirement for dry fuel in FY27.
The move is aimed at increasing the availability of coal for electricity generation amid a critical coal stock position, a source said.
"The company would be sourcing 10-15 million tonnes of coal from commercial miners this (fiscal) year. It has spoken to NLC as well," the source said, noting that NTPC plants are running at a PLF of 75-76 percent.
The shipment will come from commercial mines located in states such as Odisha and West Bengal, the source said.
Plant load factor (PLF) indicates how efficiently a thermal power plant is using its overall capacity.
India's largest power generation player, NTPC, is anticipating a coal requirement of around 300 million tonnes (MT) in FY27, up 11 per cent from FY26 (when CIL and SCCL had jointly supplied 215.9 MT, 6.4 MT sourced from commercial mines and 47.7 MT through captive sources).
In FY25, NTPC's coal demand was 280 MT, of which 44.9 MT was met through captive sources, 11.6 MT from commercial mines, and 226.7 MT from CIL and SCCL.
With over 90 GW installed capacity, NTPC is among the leading buyers of coal from Coal India Ltd. It sources the fuel under long-term fuel supply agreements (FSAs) with the coal behemoth.
NTPC has reported about 13 percent year-on-year growth in power generation to 117.9 billion units (BUs) in July-September from 104.4 BUs in the year-ago quarter.
As per official data, as of October 5, as many as 90 plants are facing a critical coal stock situation out of 191 plants having a total capacity of about 225 GW.
The plants have coal stock of 20.58 MT against 61.17 MT, data showed.
A plant falls under the critical category if its coal stock is less than 25 per cent of the usual quantity. The daily coal stock requirement is calculated at 85 per cent of the plant load factor (PLF) or capacity utilisation.
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