CIL steps up supply coal to power sector; per-day average 20% higher

State-owned CIL on Friday said it has stepped up the supply of coal to the power sector in the first eight days of the current month, with an average of 1.39 million tonnes (MT) per day, clocking a growth of around 20 per cent y-o-y.

The development assumes significance in the wake of power plants across the country facing coal shortages.

"CIL has stepped up supplies to the power sector in the first eight days of September, clocking around 20 per cent growth at an average of 1.39 MT per day," the state-owned firm said in a statement.

Till the same date of last year's September, the average supply per day had stood at 1.16 MT, Coal India Ltd (CIL) said in the statement.

"We are aiming to augment the total supply further to a level of 1.8 MT per day consistently and 1.45 MT per day to the power sector," the company said.

CIL's e-auction bookings logged a robust 42 per cent growth during the April-August period, on the back of a demand spike in coal-based power generation and soaring international coal prices, compared to a similar period a year ago.

The booked volume during the ongoing financial year, till August, was also more than a two-fold increase compared with nearly 20 MT over the pre-pandemic April-August period of 2019.

CIL booked 53.3 million tonnes of coal in the first five months of FY22, under the five auction categories. This is nearly 16 MT higher compared with 37.5 MT of the corresponding period of FY21.

The add-on fetched was 30 per cent over notified prices.

Amid the spiralling international prices, non-power sector customers, under their exclusive auction window, opted for domestic coal accounting for 37 per cent or 19.7 MT of the total auction bookings during the April-August period. Seventy per cent of the total offered quantity was booked by them.

With the upsurge in coal-based power generation, the quantity booked by power sector customers under special forward auction more than doubled to 17.3 MT during the referred period against eight MT booked in the corresponding period a year ago.

As the international coal prices soar, generation from 14 imported coal-based power plants of the country, who source their coal from overseas, dropped by 20 per cent during the April-August period to 23.63 MW from that of 29.67 MW same period a year ago.

The contraction was 30 per cent in August when the generation was 3.95 megawatts (MW) against 5.64 MW of the same month last year. This resulted in additional demand for domestic coal.

CIL accounts for over 80 per cent of the total domestic coal output.