Coal Crisis: In view of the increasing demand and consumption of electricity in the country, the government has already started to maintain the electricity production smoothly from the thermal power plant. The Ministry of Energy is apprehensive that there may be a shortage of coal again in the country. Due to the increasing demand and consumption of electricity, the demand for coal based electricity has increased. In such a situation, the Ministry of Energy fears a shortage of 24 million tonnes of coal at thermal power plants. In such a situation, the Ministry of Energy has asked the power generating companies to import 6 percent coal of their total requirement.
According to Moneycontrol’s report, on January 9, 2023, the ministry is issuing a letter that both demand and consumption of electricity have increased, due to which coal-based power generation has also increased. According to the ministry, the supply of coal from all sources has increased, but it is insufficient to meet the coal requirements of thermal power plants.
Ministry of Power said that the Ministry of Power along with Central Electricity Authority, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Railways and Association of Power Producers have decided that all power generation companies will be directed that for the first half of the current financial year and the first half of the next financial year For this, import 6 percent coal of your requirement.
There has been a tremendous increase in the demand for electricity in the country and the demand is expected to remain strong for the first six months of 2023-24. Looking at the past trend, there will be a supply of 392 million tonnes of domestic coal in the first six months of 2023-24. But there may be a shortage of 24 million tonnes of coal.
There is a shortfall of 3 lakh tonnes per day to 1 lakh tonnes per day between the daily coal consumption and the supply of domestic coal. This shortfall will be met by mixing it with imported coal. It has been assessed that without blending of imported coal in domestic coal based plants, the coal stock will gradually reduce to zero, which may aggravate the power supply crisis in the country.