Govt to offer coal use flexibility to pvt cos in 3-4 months

Government is planning to offer private companies the flexibility to use domestic coal to bring down cost of electricity generation in the next 3-4 months, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said on June 28.

"We have proposed to do it for private companies as well in 3-4 months after doing it for states," Goyal replied when asked about timeline for the government to relax norms for using domestic coal by private firms.

"We have mentioned it in the Cabinet proposal that first, we will do it for states. Thereafter, we will do it for private companies." Last month, the government had relaxed norms for utilisation of domestic coal by states with an aim to reduce cost of power generation by 40-50 paise per unit.

It was estimated that this measure would eventually lead to yearly savings of up to Rs 30,000 crore in the next 4-5 years.

The government has allowed all coal linkages to plants of state and central utilities like NTPC to be combined.

The state and central utilities are also given freedom to utilise that coal in most efficient and effective manner for reducing the cost of power generation.

Under the arrangement, all coal linkages to a central public sector undertaking are treated as one.

This helps these state-run plants to find the most effective way of utilising it so that the modern and new plants run at a higher plant load factor. This reduces cost of power which is ultimately passed on to the consumer.