HOT COAL: Staying relevant amid green rush

Rising economic prosperity, expanding access to electricity and slow growth of Renewable Energy (RE) have all conspired to keep coal burning in coming years, believe panelists at the inaugural session of 16th Indian Coal Markets Conference organised by mjunction services Ltd based on the theme: “Coal Rush: Growing in a Green World”.

To meet the demand for thermal power, the government is aggressively pursuing expansion of country’s coal production capacities.

“Economy is developing so the requirement of power is enormous. Though the focus is on expanding RE capacity, dependence on coal is significant. Therefore, the Coal Ministry is working on a strategy to enhance production of coal so that power as well as other sectors get adequate amount of coal and, if there is a surplus, coal can also be exported,” Amrit Lal Meena, Coal Secretary said during his address at the inaugural session.

Meeting the need of the non-power sector

Before the country turns surplus on coal, there is an urgent need to meet the demand of non-power/non-regulated sector, to which supplies have been impacted due to priority currently being given to the power sector in the run-up to the summer days.

“We are pained by the inadequate availability of coal to the non-regulated sector (NRS). In fact, in all high-level meetings, the issue of supply of coal to all sectors of the economy is stressed. Power sector being preferred, we are not able to give (coal to NRS). Once the production goes up both from Coal India as well as captive and commercial miners, definitely there would be adequate coal,” Meena, who was addressing the inaugural session virtually, said.

Coal Secretary requested coal users to participate in auction as smaller-sized mines at reasonable revenue-share are available which will make coal users self-reliant in coal.

Coal India Chairman Pramod Agrawal said supplied to the NRS is being beefed up.

“In February-March, we are doing highest-ever supplies to the NRS. We will continue to do so provided the rakes are made available. We can shift to the road-mode if rakes are inadequate. However, making rakes available has to be taken care of by the customers. This is the basic premise that we have to work. Within this framework, if there is any suggestion from customers, we are willing to consider,” Agrawal said during his address.

Commercial/captive mines to produce 150 mt in FY24

According to Meena, 50 commercial and captive mines are ready for operation.

A total of 129 mines have been allocated so far for captive and commercial users.

The Ministry estimates that 15 percent of the total coal production will be from captive and commercial mines, Meena said.

During FY22, production from captive and commercial mines stood at 89 million tons (mt), and in FY23, the Ministry is expecting 112 mt against a target of 120 mt.

And in FY24, the target set for this category of mines is 161 mt.

Considering growth rate of India, it can be assumed that energy sector shall see a similar increase in requirement of around