Never again will there be coal shortage in country: Pralhad Joshi

‘There was a shortage due to an extraordinary situation. The demand for power went up due to improved economic activity,’ says Union Coal Minister

Twice in the recent past the country has faced coal shortage — in October 2021 and last month. Critics blame poor planning; the government says it was an “extraordinary situation” and action has been taken to ensure that a shortage never occurs again. To discuss this, Business Line caught up with Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi at Neyveli, Tamil Nadu, where he had come to review the performance of the public sector company, NLC India Ltd. Excerpts from the interview:

Even today I am saying there is no shortage of coal. As of now, we are having 11-12 days stock of coal (required by power plants), on average, as a country. We have about 33.60 million tonnes of coal (lying in various places). Pithead power plants have about 25 days of stock, those about 300 km (from the mines) have about 20 days stock, those beyond 500 km may be having 14-15 days stock — like that.

In the last few days, there has been no depletion of stocks. We are replenishing coal stocks with power plants on a day-to-day basis. There was a shortage of coal due to an extraordinary situation. The demand for power went up due to improved economic activity, but at the same time power plants operating on imported gas and coal stopped producing power because of high gas and coal prices. Coal prices increased from $40 a tonne to $210 a tonne. Also, power plants operating with blended coal (partly imported) stopped importing and began demanding domestic coal. Last year, domestic coal production increased by 18%. In the first two months of the current financial year, production from captive mines alone increased by 70%.

Now, coming to why we are importing — it is because of the upcoming rainy season, when mines could be waterlogged and not be able to produce coal. Also, rain could affect transportation of coal. Keeping this in mind, we want to import and keep some stocks so that the country does not suffer.

There won’t be any coal shortage. You see, Coal India Ltd will ramp up its production to 780 million tonnes this year. Captive mines produced 89 million tonnes last year; this year they expect to produce 130 m t. I am expecting 5 m t from commercial coal mining and another 5 m t from abandoned coal mines. All put together, coal production will increase by 100 m t. In contrast, the shortage was not even 10 m t. Still we are planning for any eventuality by imports. We will import whatever is needed.

I’m fully confident. I want to assure the country that there will never be a coal shortage again.

We would definitely need coal for at least for a long time. Without coal we cannot fulfil the aspirations of the country. The question is, how to use coal in a manner that doesn’t affect the environment or contribute to global warming. We have to do all that we can to ensure that usage of coal does not cause any harm. There are many ways of doing it, such as coal gasification and planting trees.