NTPC mulls 5.4 million tonnes coal import in first half of 2023-24

State-run power giant NTPC is planning to import around 5.4 million tonnes of coal to meet the supply shortage during the first half 2023-24 fiscal, Parliament was informed on Tuesday. "NTPC is planning to import around 5.4 million tonnes of coal for its group stations to meet domestic coal supply shortage during the first half of Financial Year 2023-24," Power Minister R K Singh said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

The price of imported coal is not comparable with the price of domestic coal as it has a higher calorific value. The pricing of imported coal is linked with International Indices for imported coal, source of origin and factors like ocean freight, insurance etc. Which vary with the international demand-supply scenario. Every generating company imports coal as per its requirements. The cost of fuel including imported coal is passed onto generation tariff in accordance with regulations of appropriate Electricity Regulatory Commission, the minister explained to the House.

He stated that the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) monitors coal stock position of coal-based thermal power plants (TPPs) in the country on daily basis. As on March 5, 2023, the coal stock available at these thermal power plants is about 34 MT, which is sufficient to run the plant for 12 days at a requirement of 85 per cent PLF, the minister said adding that this is about 50 per cent of the coal stocking norms issued by Central Electricity Authority.

During this summer, the peak demand is expected to be around 230 GW, Singh added. Ministry of Power has taken many steps to ensure that the peak demand can be met during this summer.
The ministry has directed thermal power plants to not take any planned outage during April and May 2023. The ministry has approved a mechanism for the operationalisation of around 5,000 MW gas-based power plants for 18 days during the crunch period (Apr-May 2023).

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