CIL plans 530 mn tonnes of fuel for power plants in FY20

Kolkata: Coal India, a nearmonopoly supplier to the country’s thermal power plants, would raise dispatches about 9% to 530 million tonnes this fiscal year, an enhanced target analysts say should help soften power prices and substitute the solid fuel’s imports.
Last year, the public-sector miner had sold 488 million tonnes of the fuel to India’s coal-fired power producers.

“Additional supplies are needed as power demand appears to be rebounding,” said Kameswara Rao, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “Peak demand has repeatedly hit new highs in the last few months, and the consumer base has expanded due to rural electrification. Additional supplies will help substitute imports and soften spot power prices.”

Last year, power generators from Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, firms that normally depend on domestic fuel, imported 1.4 times more coal.

State-owned NTPC increased its imports three times to 9.6 lakh tonnes, while independent power producers from the private sector imported close to 12.8 million tonnes last year.