Coal India supplies to power stations surge 7 percent in April-February

New Delhi: Backed by higher rake loading in 2019, Coal India Ltd (CIL) has said its supplies to power plants has surged by 7.1 percent to 440.80 million tonnes (MT) coal between April and February this fiscal. The growth in supplies helped reduce the number of severely coal-starved power plants to four at the end of the last month, compared to nine in December.

The largest coal miner in the world, on average, loaded 206.2 rakes per day to the power sector, compared to 198.7 rakes at the same time a year ago, therefore growing at 3.8 percent.

There were 28 power stations in India facing acute shortage of coal at the end of October, even though Coal India raised its production to 306.24 MT and dispatches to 340.81 MT, which resulted in the company reporting a 10.1 percent rise in production and 7.4 percent increase in sales.

To meet the additional demand for the fossil fuel, the country imported 133.13 MT coal at the end of October, as sector experts estimate that imports till January stood at around 190 MT. Further, the number of generating stations facing severe coal shortage dropped to nine by December end, which was due to lower seasonal demand.

Coal Stock situation improved now

As Coal India vied to better the coal stock situation at the power plants, it had risked its own coal inventory falling to sub-25 MT levels in December. "The situation has improved now and currently we have 34.76 MT of pithead stocks with us," a company official said.