(FE)
Coal stocks at the country’s thermal power plants stood at 60.9 million tonnes on June 12, registering an year-on-year rise of 26.7%. This allays the fears of power outages or supply deficits amid rising mercury levels. The improvement in fuel stocks can be attributed to higher production and dispatches of coal from both public and private companies.
At this level, coal stocks at thermal power plants are at 85% of normative level of 71.45 million tonnes, which is sufficient to keep the plant load factor at generation units elevated.
The government has estimated peak power demand to touch 270 GW in the current summer season, and implemented various measures, including the mandatory operation of imported coal-based plants, gas-based plants, to ensure availability of coal.
Peak power demand touched 241 GW as of June 9. The peak demand had hit 250 GW in 2025. The country’s coal production and dispatch witnessed steady growth in May, compared to the same period last year.
The overall coal production in the country during May reached 86.24 MT, marking an increase over the 83.96 MT produced in the corresponding period of the previous year, as per data from the coal ministry. Production from captive/commercial mines during last month stood at 16.93 MT, registering a significant rise from 13.83 MT recorded during the same period last year.
“If you look at the coal adequacy ending May 2025 a total of 160 MTs of coal is available in the system at CIL and domestic coal based power plants combined,” P M Prasad, Chairman, Coal India had told FE.
Further, to ensure adequate domestic availability of coal at thermal plants, Prasad informed that weekly subgroup-level meetings and inter-ministerial committees are held, attended by officials from the ministry of power, Central Electricity Authority, Railways, CIL and its subsidiaries to monitor the coal stocks status of linked powerhouses to address any demand surge and make sufficient supplies.
“Contracts for transportation of coal from pitheads to the sidings have been awarded ensuring rake loading at CIL sidings is not disrupted due to heavy rainfall. To avoid detention of rakes, adequate contracts for cleaning of railway tracks on regular intervals during the monsoon have also been awarded,” he said.
For the current fiscal year, the power sector has placed a demand of 906 million tonnes of coal to the coal ministry for supply to its thermal power plants and be able to meet the increasing demand for power. In FY25, the demand for coal from the power sector stood at 874 million tonnes.
Of this, Coal India aims to supply 668 MT of coal to the power sector against the supply of 616 MT in FY25.
India added its highest-ever generation capacity of 34 GW during 2024-25, with renewable energy accounting for 29.5 GW. The country’s total installed capacity now stands at 472.5 GW, up from 249 GW in 2014.
As the government plans to add 80 GW of new thermal power capacity amid rising demand for power, the demand for coal by the power sector is set to rise to 1.16 billion tonnes by the year 2030, a rise of 46.3% from present levels, according to the government. By the year 2047, power and other non-regulated sectors will alone require 1.7 billion tonnes of coal to be able to meet the peak demand.
For the current fiscal, the government is targeting an overall coal production of 1.15 billion tonnes of which Coal India is expected to produce 875 million tonnes. Singareni Collieries Company Limited has a target of 72 MT coal production for the year while captive and commercial mines are seen producing 203.39 MT of coal.
