AIPEF terms Centre's coal import-related directives as an 'additional load' on thermal plants

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Power engineers' body AIPEF on Monday termed the Centre's import-related directives for the thermal plants as an "additional load" on the coal-fired power units.

The Union Ministry of Power has issued a directive that all thermal power plants of state governments, central government and the private sector should import 4 percent of coal by March 2024 to meet the shortage of coal in thermal power plants running on domestic coal, the All India Power Engineers Federation said in a statement.

The Centre has said that in view of the increased demand for electricity, there is a gap of 2 lakh tonnes per day in August between the consumption and supply of coal in domestic coal-fired thermal power plants, it added.

As per the order, "the reason for not getting adequate coal to the thermal power plants is due to the constraints of the Railways and in such a situation, putting an additional load of imported coal on the thermal power plants of the state is not appropriate," AIPEF said.

AIPEF Chairman Shailendra Dubey said that in such a situation, the price of imported coal should be given by the central government as they are not responsible for the same.

If the central government does not provide this amount, then this price will be recovered from the discoms by power generating houses of the states and ultimately the burden will fall on the common consumer, which will be unfair.