Gencos have started coal import related process, says power minister

Electricity generation companies (gencos) have started the process of importing coal for blending purposes, Union Power Minister R K Singh said on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Power had on May 18 warned that if orders for coal imports are not placed by May 31, 2022 and the imported fuel does not start arriving at power plants by June 15, the defaulter gencos will have to increase their imports to the extent of 15 per cent.

It further said if blending with domestic coal is does not start by June 15, the domestic allocation of the concerned defaulters' thermal power plants will be further reduced by 5 per cent, the ministry had said in a letter to state governments and gencos, including independent power producers (IPPs).

Replying to a question on the issue, the minister said "most of the states have started (the process), in fact every state has started."

Without sharing any figure, he said Coal India Limited (CIL) has ramped up its production but it needs to increase it more because the demand has gone up significantly.

"...CIL increased their production but not to the extent that was required .... So our reserves started coming down from 24 MT (million tonne) on April 1, in the power plants, to 19 MT on April 13 to about 18.5 MT on May 31. It has again grown to now 20 MT," Singh said at a press briefing.

Power demand has also risen as a total 2.86 crore households which did not have access to power earlier have been electrified, he said.