Coal & mines ministry to work towards ensuring energy availability: Kishan Reddy

G Kishan Reddy, Coal & mines minister

The newly-appointed minister of coal and mines Kishan Reddy said the ministries under his jurisdiction would work towards ensuring availability of energy in the country in the next five years.

As Reddy took charge of the coal and mines ministry on June 13, he acknowledged the work done under Pralhad Joshi, the former coal minister. Joshi worked towards ending coal and power shortages across the country, said Reddy.

He added that in the last 10 years under PM Modi, the government ensured sufficient power is available for domestic as well as industrial use.

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With record-high temperatures reported across the country during the summer season, the power and the coal ministry have been in the focus recently. On May 30, India’s peak power demand hit 250 gigawatts (GW) as temperature hit 45.6 degrees Celsius in the national capital. The government had said it has been able to meet higher power demand on account of availability thermal as well as renewable sources of energy including solar and wind.

Coal accounts for about three-quarters of India’s power generation and its demand is seen to be rising despite the country’s renewables plans. India has seen spikes in peak demand for electricity in the last two years, even as it has struggled to add green power capacity in line with its goal of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030. India's power demand is likely to hit 350-400 GW by 2030.

In 2023, India commissioned 5.5 GW of new coal capacity, more than double the capacity commissioned in 2022 (2.0 GW). Of the newly commissioned capacity, 1.8 GW is privately owned and the remaining 3.7 GW is owned by government enterprises, either through public sector undertakings (PSUs), or state enterprises, or joint ventures between the two.