Coal Availability Scenario to Thermal Power Plant, India

In India, western region cumulatively has 74.5 GW of coal fired power generation capacity as of December’2022. Of this total capacity Maharashtra boasts the largest capacity of 25.2 GW , followed by Gujarat (17.1 GW) & Madhya Pradesh with 16.08 GW capacity. Exhibit below indicated state wise coal fired power generation capacity in India.

In India, nearly 60.5 GW of coal fired capacity is likely to be upcoming till year 2028 and is in different stages such as – under construction, announced, permitted, pre-permit etc. Of this total upcoming capacity, about 26 GW is the under-construction capacity of central & state GENCO's and is likely to get commissioned by 2027 (as of December 2022).

In India, as of December 2022 the coal stock availability to domestic coal based thermal power plants was observed to be 54 percent less than their actual requirement. As of December 2022, the total coal stock requirement of domestic coal based thermal power plants was 53104 (Thousand Tonnes) to which only 28525 (Thousand Tonnes) was available.

State wise gap analysis of the coal stock required by domestic coal based thermal power plants (of State GENCOS) and the actual supply (Contd.)

As per Eninrac Analysis peak power demand of India shall witness a growth of 5-10% from the last year estimates, and so will the actual thermal power generation. In March 2022, peak power demand of India was 201 GW, with an assumed growth of 5-10% its anticipated to hover between 211-221 GW in March 2023 & the anticipated actual coal fired power generation shall vary b/w 146-153 GW.

On 9th January 2023, government of India gave a mandate to all the GENCOs including the IPPs for timely import of coal for blending purposes. The central & state GENCOs along with the IPPs are directed to take necessary action & immediately plan to import coal through a transparent competitive procurement for blending at the rate of 6% by weight to have coal stocks at their power plants for smooth operations till September 2023. With GoI’s move in picture close to 57% growth is anticipated in the demand for imported coal as per eninrac analysis for a period (March-September’2023) as compared to the same period in year 2022.