Risk of supply failures: Govt may put a break on coal import substitution plan to avert risk of supply failures

The government is considering to keep aside its import substitution plan for coal unless the country comes close to producing 1 billion tonnes, including productions from Coal India Ltd (CIL), Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) and captive and commercial miners, a coal ministry official said.

India’s demand for coal has been continuously on an up swing except for slump in the Covid period. The country’s miners have been scaling up production to match the demand but the sudden decision to lower imports considering high and volatile international coal prices has hit power generation to a large extent with five out of country’s 15 imported coal-based power plants forced shut. The other 10 with an installed capacity of 14,355 MW are running at an average 26-28% plant load factor (PLF).