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New Delhi: State-owned Coal India Limited (CIL) on Tuesday said that coal production rose by 7.7 percent in April and supplies to users shot up just as summer began. In a statement, Coal India Ltd (CIL) said that it logged an impressive 31 percent growth in overburden removal (OBR) in April compared to the same month a year ago. "This helps in stepping up production in the upcoming monsoon months," it said.
The company logged a whopping 44 percent year-on-year growth in supplies to the non-regulated sector (NRS). CIL is firing on all cylinders in anticipation of a summer hotter than the last. It is scaling up production, holding additional coal stocks at its pitheads, and has issued directives to power producers to hold higher inventory at their end. All this is in anticipation of electricity demand touching a new high this summer.
The government has ordered the nation's coal-fired power plants to run at full power. Coal is used to generate some 70 percent of the electricity in the country and its availability is being shored up to meet the increased demand for cooling in the summer months. "Sustaining the growth trend of the previous fiscal, CIL excavated 169.5 million cubic metres of OB in April, achieving the 109 percent target," it said.
CIL's coal production grew by 7.7 percent to 57.6 million tonnes in April. The volume increase of 4.1 million tonnes was achieved over a high base of 53.5 million tonnes in April 2022. All the subsidiaries of CIL have registered the highest-ever production for the month of April, except ECL.
"Production could have been even higher by around one million tonne but the stoppage of work for four days by contractual workers in Talcher coalfields of MCL hampered it," said a senior official of CIL. CIL's coal supplies shot up to 62.3 million tonnes in April, nearly 5 million tonnes more than the comparable month of last year when the offtake was 57.4 million tonnes. "The 8.6 percent growth during the month was built over a high base," it said. All of CIL's producing units logged growth.
Stabilising the demand from the power sector, CIL's focus on ramping up coal delivery to NRS witnessed a sharp 44 percent growth in April. The company supplied 11.8 million tonnes to its NRS customers compared to 8.2 million tonnes in April 2022. Supplies to coal-fired plants in the country rose to 50.6 million tonnes in April compared to 49.3 million tonnes last year.
"Coal availability is comfortable with domestic coal-based power plants stocked with 33.8 million tonnes as of April-end. This is 62 percent higher than 20.8 million tonnes in the same period last year," the statement said.
Stock depletion during April was merely 0.8 million tonnes at the plants' end, compared to 34.6 million tonnes at the beginning of FY'24.
Coal inventory at CIL's pitheads stood at 64.6 million tonnes at April-end, which is 13 percent higher than the same period last year. Higher production by CIL ensured stocks reducing only 4.9 million tonnes during the month. CIL began the fiscal with a coal stock of 69.5 million tonnes.
There is a total of 115 million tonnes of coal stock in the system which includes 33.8 million tonnes at domestic coal-based power plants, 64.6 million tonnes at CIL pitheads, 13.3 million tonnes of stock at private washeries, goods sheds, captive mines, and ports while 3.5 million tonnes of coal are in rakes on run, that is, coal in transit, the statement said. "Hopefully there would be no criticality on account of coal," said the official.
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