Coal India allows thermal plants to trade surplus power in open market

Under the previous policy framework, electricity produced using Coal India Ltd's linkage coal could not be traded in the open market, regardless of whether it was surplus

State-run Coal India Limited (CIL) on Thursday announced that thermal power plants using its linkage coal under long- and medium-term fuel supply agreements (FSAs) are now allowed to sell un-requisitioned surplus (URS) power on power exchanges and in the open market.

 

Earlier, the sale of power generated through such FSAs was confined to power purchase agreements (PPAs). Under the previous policy framework, electricity produced using CIL’s linkage coal could not be traded in the open market, regardless of whether it was surplus to the PPA requirements, the coal mining major said in a BSE filing.

 

“In the spirit of the revised SHAKTI (Scheme for Harnessing and Allocating Koyala Transparently in India) policy, CIL has done away with the earlier provision of restricting the sale of power in the open market. This applies evenly to all existing as well as future long and medium term power FSAs and extends to all the power generators - Central and State Gencos, independent power plants,” the company said in its statement.

 

A senior CIL officer said, the policy facilitates the power sector to meet consistent demand for affordable power. “With the surplus power availability in the exchanges, ideally, the spot prices will be in check, leading to affordable power to all,” the company mentioned. 

CIL currently has FSAs totalling approximately 650 million tonnes for the power sector in the current financial year. 

Coal India Q1 results

Coal India posted a consolidated net profit of ₹8,743 crore for the first quarter of the financial year 2025-26 (Q1 FY26), marking a 20.2 per cent year-on-year decline from ₹10,959 crore recorded in the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

 

Revenue from operations also saw a decrease, falling 4.4 per cent to ₹35,842 crore in the April–June period, down from ₹37,504 crore in Q1FY25. Operating profitability weakened as well, with EBITDA dropping 12.4 per cent to ₹14,282 crore from ₹16,309 crore a year ago.  Shares of Coal India closed at ₹379.5 apiece on the BSE on Thursday.