Coal import by domestic thermal plants declines
This demonstrates an increased reliance on domestic coal supplies for these sectors
After a record-breaking coal production of 777 Million Ton (MT) in 2021-22, domestic coal production continues to witness an increasing trend in the current financial year as well.
The total domestic coal production in 2022-23, as of 31 May is 137.85 MT, which is 28.6 percent more as compared to the production of 104.83 MT in the same period of last year. This trend is being maintained in June also.
The coal production by Coal India Ltd (CIL) is 28 percent more than the production in the same period of the previous year (as of 16 June), the Ministry of Coal said in a statement on Sunday. The domestic coal production target for the current financial year is 911 MT which is 17.2 percent more than the previous year.
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The coal imports for blending by the Domestic Coal Based (DCB) power plants have dropped to 8.11MT in the year 2021-22 which has been the lowest coal import in the last eight years. This was possible solely due to the robust coal supply from domestic sources and increased domestic coal production.
The Imported Coal Based (ICB) power plants had imported coal of more than 45 MT per year from 2016-17 to 2019-20. However, coal import by the ICB power plants dropped to the lowest level of 18.89 MT in 2021-22 and the generation from these plants also dropped to 39.82 BU in the year 2021-22 as compared to the 100+ BU which these plants have been generating since quite some time.
This year too their generation remains very low due to high price of imported coal.
In the last five years, the coal-based power generation has grown at a CAGR of 1.82 per cent whereas the domestic coal supply to power sector had grown at a CAGR of 3.26 per cent. Thus, coal supply to power sector has outpaced the growth in coal-based power generation and continues to do so in the present year too.
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