Question : Supply of Adulterated Coal to Power Plants

(a) whether the Government maintains any data on adulteration of coal supply to power producers;

(b) if so, the details thereof during the last three years and the current year;

(c) whether the recent coal supply to power producers has been found to be adulterated with rocks and mud, if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto;

(d) whether the Government proposes to remedy this situation, especially considering the dangers of damage to power plant equipment due to adulterated coal, which leads to delays in supply and increase in costs;

(e) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;

(f) whether the Government also proposes to compensate power producers for damages and losses faced due to the supply of adulterated coal; and

(g) if so, the details thereof along with the reasons for the decrease in quality of coal despite the recent increase in its production and supply?

THE MINISTER OF POWER AND NEW & RENEWABLE ENERGY

(SHRI R.K. SINGH)

(a) to (g) : In order to address the issue of quality of coal dispatched by coal companies to the power utilities, a third party sampling and analysis of coal is being done by the Third Party Sampling (TPS) agency and credit/debit notes are being issued by the coal companies based on the results of TPS agency at loading end.

Indian coal is inherently heterogeneous in nature due to its drift formation and coal extracted from the same seam at different points and also in all three directions may vary in grades/quality. This variation may be below or above the grade(s) of seams of mines/sidings as/declared by the Coal Controller Organization (CCO).

The data for TPS samples having below the declared grade for the last two years, Coal India subsidiary-wise as provided by Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR), is as follows:

CIL Subsidiary Samples below declared grade (in %) year-wise
2019-20 2020-21
BCCL 75.02 47.09
ECL 89.04 83.66
NCL 27.37 32.59
SECL 53.96 52.20
WCL 42.33 28.29
MCL 31.00 23.00
CCL 53.89 47.22


**************