(FE)
The Union power ministry has asked thermal power plants to reduce coal imports and use the fuel more from domestic suppliers as coal stocks are piling up at pitheads and power plants are already loaded with the fuel amid low electricity demand.
In a letter to power producers written on Tuesday, the government has asked power plants which blend high quality imported coal with domestic fuel to “make best efforts to replace their imports with domestic coal”. Out of the 198.5 giga watt (GW) of installed coal-based power plants, more than 162 GW import coal for power generation. However, 144.6 GW of this capacity import coal for blending with the local variant, while 17.6 GW are designed to run specifically on imported coal. In FY20, power plants in the country imported 69.2 million tonne (MT) coal, up 12% annually. Of this, 45.5 MT were imported by plants designed to run on imported coal.
