Kolkata, 18 February : With almost a month and a half remaining before financial year 2021-22 (FY22) draws to an end, state-run Coal India Limited (CIL), as of February 16, has already raced ahead of the total coal despatch of FY21.
CIL has supplied 575 million tonnes (MTs) of coal during this period bettering the annual despatch of 574.5 MTs in the financial year 2021. Till February 16 0f the current fiscal, CIL despatch to power plants of the country was up at 468.4 MTs compared to 381 MTs of corresponding period last year, posting 23 per cent growth.
The 9.4 per cent growth in power generation till December FY22 was the highest in a decade on the back of a strong post COVID economic revival. Whereas, coal imports are down to a nine year low due to a sharp increase in international coal prices. This put the onus on CIL to step in with increased supplies to ensure uninterrupted power generation that it did.
Amid wild fluctuations, the total coal-based power generation went up sharply to around 11.2 per cent in FY22 till January, against comparable period last year, after a decline during previous two years. To handle such volatility in demand is difficult for a mining company but CIL managed to do so with increased volume supplies.
CIL has ensured higher availability of coal from its end at a time when the domestic coal-based generation has spiked up by 17 per cent till January 22.
As of February 3, nearly two months before the current fiscal’s closing, CIL despatched 446.5 MTs of coal to the power sector exceeding the total quantity that it supplied to the utilities during the entire FY21, which was 445 MTs.
CIL aims to scale up its supplies to the regulated power sector to 548 MTs ending 2021-22 as per the projection of Central Electricity Authority. This would mean a whopping 103 MT volume jump compared to the power sector’s despatch of 445 MTs in FY21.
CIL’s average despatch to non-power sector is 3.32 lakh tonnes per day so far in the current fiscal which is the normal average. With sufficient coal availability and production looking up, meeting the average despatch of non-regulated sector will not be an issue.
CIL’s current coal production is at 2.3 MTs/day and expected to scale up to 2.6 MTs/day and above in the high yielding month of March.
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