By Manish Gupta
Coal minister Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday said the country is well prepared to meet the demand for coal and there will be no shortage of the fuel during monsoon. Arrival of monsoon on the Kerala coast, where it hits on the Indian subcontinent, is delayed by three-four days.
“I assure the country on behalf of Coal India (CIL) and the coal ministry that there will be no shortage of coal even during monsoon this time for the entire country,” Joshi said at a conference here.
“Preparations have been done well. Whatever the demand may be, we take the responsibility to fulfil it,” Joshi said, adding that he expects CIL to become a coal exporter in two to three years, latest by 2026-27.
Calling India a bright spot amid a challenging global scenario, he said the country has gained credibility over the past few years and will be fulfilling the needs of the world, and for that its energy security has to be assured.
Joshi said the need for coal will be there for another 30-35 years and its production should be increased to cut down imports. “We could have avoided 107 MT of imported coal from the total (235 MT) imported last year,” he said.
Speaking on the sidelines, the minister said current coal stock levels are at a comfortable position. “The coal stock is at around 35 MT at thermal power plants and 65 MT at the pitheads and in transit 10-12 MT,” he said.
The country’s peak power demand crossed 221 GW on May 17, surpassing the highest recorded early this summer at 216 GW on April 18. The peak power demand met last year was 212 GW on June 10.
The government has estimated the peak power demand to reach 230 GW this summer.
Power minister RK Singh has said the country is well prepared to meet additional demand and that there will be no major outages. The government has taken several steps to ensure that there is no repeat of the power outages as in 2022. It has asked all gencos to operate at full capacity, and ensured adequate availability of coal to them.
As per the recently released National Electricity Plan, the projected all-India peak electricity demand is 277 GW for FY27 and 366 GW for FY32. It also estimated domestic coal requirement to be 866.4 MT for 2026-27 and 1,025.8 MT for 2031-32.