(a) whether it is a fact that few units of different thermal power plants in the country were forced to stop and some had reduced production due to shortage of
coal supply during the last one and half year time;
(b) if so, the details thereof, State-wise; and
(c) the action taken by the Government thereto and the outcome thereof?
THE MINISTER OF POWER AND NEW & RENEWABLE ENERGY
(SHRI R.K. SINGH)
(a) : No Sir.
(b) : In view of the above, the question does not arise.
(c) : In order to address the day to day issues of coal supplies to power sector, an Inter-Ministerial Sub Group comprising of representatives from Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Shipping, Central Electricity Authority (CEA), NTPC Ltd., Coal India Limited (CIL)/Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) meet regularly to take various operational decisions for meeting any contingent situations relating to Power Sector including critical coal stock position in power plants.
Further, the Government has taken the following steps to help the plants to meet their coal requirement:
i. Government in May, 2016 allowed flexibility in utilization of domestic coal by State/Central Gencos amongst their generating stations to reduce the cost of power generation by using coal in most efficient plants as well as by saving in transportation cost. The States may also transfer their linkage coal to IPPs selected through bidding process and take equivalent power.
ii. Rationalization of linkage sources of State/Central Gencos and IPPs with a view to optimize transportation cost has been allowed.
iii. Government has introduced a scheme SHAKTI (Scheme for Harnessing and Allocating Koyala (Coal) Transparently in India)-2017, to provide coal linkages to the power plants which do not have linkage.
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