With Increasing Supply, Coal Stock At Power Plants Likely To Reach Six Days' Buffer In Around A Week: Govt

The government on Thursday (28 October) said the coal supply to the thermal power plants (TPPs) has been increasing on a daily basis and that the buffer stock of the fuel in the TPPs is likely to reach to six-day capacity in around a week.

"Coal supply to power plants has indicated steady increase for the last many days," the Coal Ministry said on Thursday (28 October).

"As per Central Electricity Authority (CEA) report the coal stock with power plants stood at 9.028 Million Tonnes (MT) as on 26 October 2021. With daily increase in coal stock for the last nine days, five days’ stock is available at the end of the Thermal Power Plants (TPPs)," the ministry said.

"In around a week’s time it is likely to reach 6 days’ buffer stock. Coal consumed on daily basis by the TPPs is replenished by coal companies," it added.

The ministry said that the coal supplies to TPPs have been increasing consistently which is evident from the rise in stock at the Power Plant end which has started rising and average increase during last one week is more than two lakh tonne per day.

Earlier this month, Union Minister for Coal Pralhad Joshi held a virtual meeting with Minister of Power R K Singh and Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw along with senior officers of the respective ministries, CMDs and officials of the coal companies to discuss and review the steps necessary to further improve coal stock at the power plants end.

It was agreed in the meeting that supply to power plants will be around two million tons per day from all the sources i.e. Coal India Ltd, Singareni Collieries Ltd and captive mines. The overall coal supply to Power has been consistently more than 2.1 MT for the last one week, it said.