As
per information furnished by Central Electricity Authority (CEA), imported coal
is being blended with domestic coal (in some power plants) to bridge the
shortfall in domestic availability of coal. This was stated by Sh. Piyush
Goyal, Minister of state for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy
(Independent Charge) in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today. Coal
is blended upto 15% subject to feasibility of technical parameters of boiler
design etc. Coal imported for blending during the last three years and current
year is given below:
|
|
2011-12
|
|
2012-13
|
|
2013-14
|
2014-15
|
|
|
(Mte)
|
Assessed
|
Ach.
|
Assessed
|
Ach.
|
Assessed
|
Ach.
|
Assessed
|
Ach.*
|
|
Import of coal by plants based on domestic
coal
( blended)
|
35.0
|
27.5
|
46.0
|
31.08
|
50.0
|
37.8
|
54.0
|
11.7
|
|
Note ( *) April -June 2014
|
The
Minister further stated that the reasons indicated for import is lesser coal
than quantity assessed for the year include: (i) high cost of imported coal, in
general (ii) power utilities’ reluctance to import more coal especially, those
plants which are far off from ports; and (iii) electricity generated on
imported coal not getting scheduled in merit order operation, and as a result,
it leading to sub-optimal utilization of plant capacity. Technical limitation
of Boiler design etc. has also been cited as a factor that limits the use of
imported coal.
As
per the current import policy, coal is already under Open General
License (OGL) and consumers are free to import coal from the source of their
choice as per their contractual prices on payment of applicable duty, the
Minister added.
RM/RS- USQ2176 – LS