AHMEDABAD: To battle the looming energy crisis in the country due to constraints on domestic coal supply, the central government has decided to take a number of steps to increase the use of imported coal for power generation, including for blending purposes, officials familiar with the matter said.
At a meeting chaired by union power minister R K Singh this week with officials of the Gujarat government and a few other states and also independent power producers (IPP) with imported coal-based (ICB) plants, the minister has asked all the companies to operationalise their power plants at full capacity to reduce pressure on domestic coal demand.
While the Centre has decided to allow the cost of imported coal as a pass-through till December 2022, it has asked all the states and IPP to use imported coal for blending purposes to the extent of 10% instead of only 4% to ensure maintaining adequate coal stocks at the power plant as per the advised coal stock norms, said an official present at the meeting.
