Coal India (CIL) on May 2 informed the exchanges that its coal production has risen 7.7 percent in April 2023, adding that supplies to users shot up just as summer began.
The world's largest coal miner added that it has logged a 31 percent jump in overburden removal (OBR) in the month on year-on-year (YoY) basis. "This helps in stepping up production in the upcoming monsoon months," the company statement noted.
Coal India registered 44 percent growth YoY in supplies to non-regulated sector (NRS). The company said it is "firing on all cylinders in anticipation of a summer hotter than the last".
In anticipation of electricity demand touching record highs this year during the summer months, CIL is holding additional coal stocks at its pitheads, scaling up production and has issued directives to power producers to hold higher inventory at their end.
India gears for hot summer months, production at high
The government has directed coal power plants in the country to run on full capacity. These plants comprise at least 70 percent of India's energy generation. Availability is being "shored up" to better meet anticipated demand.
The government had projected India's peak power demand to touch 230 gigawatts (GW) this April, but due to rains in several parts of the country the temperatures have remained lower than normal so far, resulting in a dip in the power demand.
The country's power consumption dipped for the second month in a row by 1.1 percent to 130.57 billion units (BU) in April this year. The same happened in March as well with power consumption dipping to 126.82 BU during the month, against 128.47 BU a year ago.
However, in May, June, July and also the monsoon months, power shortages often happen either due to a steep surge in the power demand or because of lack of coal as transportation of the same gets hindered.
"Sustaining the growth trend of previous fiscal, CIL excavated 169.5 million cubic meters of OB in April, achieving 109 per cent target. Compared to 129.6 million cubic meters in April 2022, the growth was 31 percent," the company added.
CIL's coal production grew by 7.7 per cent to 57.6 million tonne in April. The volume increase of 4.1 million tonne was achieved over a high base of 53.5 million tonne in April 2022.
Except for Eastern Coalfield (ECL), all the subsidiaries of CIL have registered the highest-ever production for the month of April. A senior official told PTI that production could have been even higher by around 1 million tonne, but work was stopped for four days in the Mahanandi Coalfield's (MCL) Talcher coalfields.
Further, CIL's coal supplies jumped to 62.3 million tonne in April, nearly 5 million tonne more YoY, when offtake was 57.4 million tonne. "The 8.6 percent growth during the month was built over a high base," it said.
All of CIL's producing units logged growth
Stabilising the demand from the power sector, CIL's focus on ramping up coal delivery to NRS witnessed a sharp 44 percent growth in April. The company supplied 11.8 million tonne to its NRS customers compared to 8.2 million tonne in April 2022.
Supplies to coal-fired plants in the country rose to 50.6 million tonne in April compared to 49.3 million tonne last year.
"Coal availability is comfortable with domestic coal-based power plants stocked with 33.8 million tonne as of April-end. This is 62 per cent higher than 20.8 million tonne of the same period last year," the statement said.
Stock depletion during April was merely 0.8 million tonne at the plants' end, compared to 34.6 million tonne at the beginning of FY'24.
Coal inventory at CIL's pitheads stood at 64.6 million tonne at April-end, which is 13 per cent higher than the same period last year. Higher production by CIL ensured stocks reducing only 4.9 million tonne during the month.
CIL began the fiscal with a coal stock of 69.5 million tonne.
There is a total of 115 million tonne of coal stock in the system which includes 33.8 million tonne at domestic coal-based power plants; 64.6 million tonne at CIL pitheads; 13.3 million tonne of stock at private washeries, goods sheds, captive mines and ports while 3.5 million tonnes of coal is in rakes on run, that is, coal in transit, the statement said.
"Hopefully there would be no criticality on account of coal," said the official.
(With inputs from PTI)
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