Despite extremely high demand for power, the Ministry of Coal has confirmed that the coal stocks at thermal power plants continue to remain healthy, ensuring a steady power supply across the nation. In a release, the ministry said that the current coal reserves at these plants is more than 45 MT, which is 30 per cent higher as compared to last year. The stocks are sufficient to meet the requirement of 19 days.
During the month of May 2024, the average daily depletion at thermal power plants was 10,000 tonnes per day. “This has been made possible by ensuring smooth and adequate logistic arrangements for supply of coal. The mechanism of the Sub-Group comprising representatives from the Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Railways and Power Generating companies is playing an effective role in maintaining an efficient supply chain,” the ministry said. While maintaining that coal production growth is more than 8 per cent over last year, the Ministry of Coal said, “The stock at the mine pit-head is over 100 MT resulting in adequate coal to power sector. The Ministry of Railways has ensured 9 per cent average growth on daily availability of railway rakes. Evacuation through coastal shipping has also seen significant growth as traditionally coal was being transported via Paradip port only. Now under proper coordination as per coal logistics policy, it has resulted in evacuation of coal through Dhamra and Gangavaran ports also. The infrastructural augmentation in the railway network has significantly contributed in faster movement of rakes from Son Nagar to Dadri. Therefore, it has seen more than 100 per cent improvement in turnaround time.”
Ransomware attacks on the rise! Nearly 2900 assaults by 85 telegram hacktivist groups between January-MarchThe Ministry of Coal is geared up to ensure adequate availability of coal at thermal power plants during monsoon season. “It is expected that on 1st July 2024, more than 42MT of coal would be kept available at the thermal power plant end,” it said.
Earlier, data released by the power ministry stated that India’s peak electricity demand touched a new high of 250 GW on 30th May as the temperatures rose across states. At this level, it added, the peak power demand had already crossed last year’s peak of 243.3 GW recorded in September. Meanwhile, power demand during the non-solar hours too reached an all-time high of 234.3 GW on Wednesday across the country.
Furthermore, state-owned Coal India and its subsidiaries yesterday announced that it recorded coal production of 64.4 million tons in the month of May 2024 in comparison to 59.9 million tons in May 2023, posting a growth of 7.5 per cent. It also announced that it produced 126.2 million tons of coal during April-May period, up 7.4 per cent from 117.5 million tons during the same period previous year.