Critical coal stock levels in 86 thermal power plants raise energy security concerns in India

New Delhi: As many as 86 thermal power plants in the country, including six imported dry fuel-based, had critical coal stock levels as of October 18, according to a Central Electricity Authority (CEA) report.

The power plants are labelled as having a critical coal stock situation, where the dry fuel is less than 25 per cent of the normative level. According to the daily coal report of the CEA for October 18, 2023, as many as 86 thermal power plants were having critical coal stock situations out of the monitored 181 in the country. There were six imported coal-based plants out of these 86 plants. CEA monitors 181 coal-based thermal power plants in the country with a total installed generation capacity of 206 GW.

As per the report, 148 non-pithead domestic coal-based power plants with a total capacity of about 149 GW had 29 per cent less dry fuel stocks than the normative (or ideal) levels. These 148 plants had about 12.77 million tonnes of coal against the normative level of 43.53 million tonnes as of October 18, 2023. However, the situation was better at 18 domestic pithead plants where dry fuel stock was 81 per cent of the normative levels. These 18 plants have a total power generation capacity of about 40 GW.

The experts are of the view that generally the dry fuel stock situation is not often critical at pithead plants as these are located near coal mines. The non-pithead plants are those where the dry fuel is transported from far-flung places where coal mines are located. The overall dry fuel stock situation was also better at 15 imported coal-based power plants monitored by the CEA, where stocks were 52 per cent of the normative levels. These 15 imported coal-based plants have a total generation capacity of 17 GW.

The report showed that these 181 power plants with a total capacity of about 206 GW had coal stocks of 20.43 million tonnes (38 per cent of the ideal level) against the normative level of 54.31 million tonnes. The report also showed that the daily fuel requirement of these 181 plants is 2.8 million tonnes. Thus, they have coal stocks to last a little over seven days as of October 18, 2023.