Rains bring down spot power prices

Coal stocks at generation plants still low

The coal stock in power plants remained precarious though rain showers cooled the spot power prices at the exchanges, which fell by 60 per cent in just a week to Rs 3.6 a unit. Coal fired capacity of 35,000 Mw in the country is running on coal stock of less than seven days, of which 18,900 Mw capacity at 29 power stations have reached a critical limit of coal stock of less than four days.

Around 13,122.50 Mw coal-fired power generation capacity is shut across the country, with 80 per cent closing down over the last two weeks. The power demand has shot up to 238 million units a day last week, but this got back to the usual 180 million units a day this week.

The 56 power plants which have coal stock of less than seven days require 8.76 million tonne coal. Of these, 21 have coal supply arrangement with Coal India Limited (CIL). CIL's fuel supply agreement requires it to meet 65 per cent of the supply through domestic coal. Though the miner is ready to import 15 per cent of the requirement on a cost-plus basis to meet 80 per cent of the requirement of new plants, the initial estimate was the import would stand at about 5 million tonne (mt) for 50 power plants.

CRISIS SITUATION

• 56 power plants totalling 35,000 Mw have coal stock for less than 7 days
• 29 plants have less than 4 days of coal stock
• 8.7 million tonne coal supply shortfall
• 13,500 Mw of thermal power generation shut across country
• Spot power prices fall by 60% in a week

A senior CIL executive had earlier told Business Standard the maiden import tender to be floated by Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India (on behalf of CIL) in a few days is likely to be for less than one mt. He said companies were not ready to import coal though plant load factor has increased.

Date	MCP (Market Clearing Price)
	Rs per unit
25-08-2014	10.7
26-08-2014	10.8
27-08-2014	5.4
28-08-2014	5.2
29-08-2014	5.47
30-08-2014	5.81
31-08-2014	5.49
1/9/2014	4.36
2/9/2014	4
3/9/2014	3.68
Source: India Energy Exchange (IEX)

As power generation across north and west India reeled under coal scarcity, spot prices at India Energy Exchange, from Monday till Wednesday last week, went up to Rs 10.8 a unit. On Wednesday, the western grid faced a power supply crunch of 7,200 Mw and the next day the northern grid faced a supply crisis of around 2,300 Mw.