KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) - India’s coal-based thermal power plants would have to ship in 80-million tons of coal during 2013/14, up from 70-million tons projected earlier, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) which falls under the Power Ministry.

According to a CEA official, in 2012/13 actual imports of 31-million tons had exceeded projections by seven-million tons.

Elaborating on the breakdown of the imports, the official said that, while 50-million tons would be required to meet shortfall in supplies from domestic miners like Coal India and Singareni Collieries, while the remaining 30-million tons would be exclusively for imported coal-based power plants that have gone operational.

India’s largest power generation utility, NTPC, with a total installed capacity of  40 675 MW, would require an estimated 164-million tons of coal during the year of which the company would have to import 17-million tons to bridge the shortage in supplies from domestic mines, the official said.

India planned to construct 16 thermal power plants, each with capacity of 4 000 MW, called ultra mega power plants (UMPPs), based on imported thermal coal. Two of the plants were to be developed by Tata Power and another two by Adani Power, both at Mundra in the western province of Gujarat.

However, while coal import projections have been finalised by the CEA, the Indian government has yet to finalise a pricing policy for imported coal that would cut through opposition to the proposal for a pool pricing regime or averaging prices of domestic and imported coal to determine an uniform feedstock price.

The government’s apex body, the Cabinet Committee for Economic Affairs, was scheduled to meet on April 22 to take a final decision on the pool price mechanism.

The pool price proposal has drawn opposition on the grounds that it would force an across-the-board upward revision of electricity tariffs, erode competitiveness of thermal power plants located near domestic coal pitheads and owing to NTPC’s reluctance to purchase imported coal based on a pooled price.