Resumption of economic activities across the country after the number of Covid-19 cases go down resulted in a sudden rise in demand for power and coal, which eventually stressed the coal producers, experts here said.
If experts are to be believed, the recent coal crisis is linked to the demand-supply gap which is gradually coming back on track. While the resumption of industrial and business activities resulted in demand for power, extended monsoon played spoilsport with coal production which feeds around 80% of the power producers in the country.
The Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited and one of the largest coal producers of the country, has ramped up its daily production target to 1.80 lakh metric tonne and is working towards escalating it further to 2 lakh tonne. The largest power producer — National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) — has also increased its coal production in all three mines — one each in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
CCL officials admitted that during the second wave, the demand for coal had reduced considerably. “We had written letters to the power producers to offtake coal being mined but having received no response from them. Hence, we were forced to cut down production to under one lakh metric tonne per day,” an official said, adding that the surge in demand started all of a sudden since September when the industries and markets started opening up.
Sources said the manufacturing industry, mostly in western and central India had either closed during the second wave or were functioning at half capacity. “Workers started returning when the vaccination rate picked up and different state governments started issuing permits for the operation to the industries. Ahead of the Durga Puja, the economic activities touched the peak,” said Mukesh Kumar, a former member of the Chamber of Commerce here.
Power engineers claimed that the coal crisis is also linked with extended monsoon this year. All India Power Engineers Federation member M P Yadav said the shortage of coal supply during monsoon is a regular feature. “This year, the situation was aggravated because of the extended monsoon which resulted in inundation of most of the open-pit coal mines, which constitute 70% of the coal mines in Jharkhand,” he said.
During the rainy season, the coal stock in the yards of power producers often gets wet resulting in a reduction in power production. Yadav further said the coal is powdered in mills before being fed to the burners and if wet, they turn into paste resulting in poor efficiency.
CCL officials also agreed that several open cast mines in Jharkhand were inundated and it was not possible to mine coal there. “The monsoon generally retreats by the second week of September, but this year, the rain continued till late October, resulting in the coal crisis during October,” the CCL official said.
CCL’s head of public relations, Anupam Rana, said senior officials of the company are monitoring coal production from the fields on a regular basis and the situation has started to improve. “We are targeting two lakh metric tonne daily production and have escalated it to 1.80 lakh metric tonne as of date,” he said.
Notwithstanding the claims of coal producers to have increased production, the shortfall in the local market continues as most of the coal is being sent to the big power producers. The state-owned power producer, Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Limited (TVNL) in Bokaro, is surviving with a one day stock and getting coal rakes on a daily basis to feed its plant.
The CMD of TVNL, Anil Kumar Sharma, said they have shut one unit of 210MW since September and need around 2,700 metric tonne coal to run the second unit of 210 MW. “We have a stock of around 3,000 metric tonnes of coal and if there is no supply for two days, we will have to shut the plant,” he said.
