Coal supply crisis: Urgent need to increase imports

The country's energy markets have recently seen a rebound. According to reports from the Coal Market, crude oil prices have risen sharply in recent times, leading to short supply. Coal shortages have recently had an adverse effect on aluminum producers in particular. Aluminum producers said that the supply of coal was getting less than expected. The shortage of rail-racks has also been seen in the supply coming through the railways and this has also affected the supply of coal. The production of aluminum requires a special power supply, especially in the smelting process. Such power supply is available through in-house captive power plants but the process has been hampered by coal shortages. Aluminum producers have also raised the issue in a letter to the Commerce Ministry and the Coal Ministry in Delhi. In addition to aluminum, various coal-based industries are currently facing such a situation. According to sources in the aluminum industry, about 70 per cent of the total production cost of aluminum is in the form of coal. Aluminum producers are currently increasing production capacity and a total of about Rs 1.5 lakh crore has been spent by the aluminum industry to increase such production capacity. At such times, aluminum producers are confused by the shortage of coal.

Meanwhile, according to news from the industry, it is time to start rationing coal as the supply of coal is declining. Such rationing has been initiated in the supply of coal to power plants. Power plants which have reduced the amount of coal to critical level are given priority to supply the amount of coal. Some power plants have cut off supplies to coal plants that last for two weeks. The government has urged small and medium-sized mines to increase coal production. Apart from government-owned Coal India, the country also produces coal in such small and medium-sized mines. Coal supply has declined as the country has recently witnessed an increase in demand for electricity and this has been followed by an increase in demand for coal.

Meanwhile, there have been indications that coal stocks at the country's power plants have recently come down to between 12 and 15 lakh tonnes. According to experts in the field, the current stock of power plants has declined by about 20 to 5 per cent compared to the same period last year. The country's demand for electricity rose by about 10 to 11 per cent in July, after a similar increase in August. The recent decision of NTPC to import about 3 lakh 40 thousand tonnes of coal has also come to light. Meanwhile, the government has urged power plants to increase coal imports. India ranks fourth among various countries in the world in terms of the amount of coal reserves it has in the land. Despite such a situation, coal imports have to be increased urgently. Thermal power plants require coal for blending. In many power plants, stockpiles of coal have reached record lows, experts said. Despite having a large amount of coal in the country, India is the second largest importer of coal. The country imports coal mainly from Indonesia, Australia and South Africa. Although the government had earlier tried to reduce the base on imports, now it is time to increase imports. In the first eight months of this year, however, coal-fired power generation has increased by 15 to 20 per cent. While the generation of electricity through renewable energy has increased by about 15 to 18 per cent during this period.