KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – To cope with peaking electricity demand during the summer months ahead, India’s Coal Ministry has directed State-run Coal India Limited (CIL) to ensure that each thermal power plant has assured stocks of 20 days on any given day.

The Ministry has directed the coal miner to sustain the momentum of coal supplies, which has partially alleviated dry fuel shortages at thermal power plants across the country. At the end of last month, coal stocks at thermal power plants averaged 16 days’ worth of consumption.

Currently, there are only five thermal power plants with ‘critical’ fuel stocks of five-days of consumption equivalent, an improvement since October 2018 when there were 29 thermal power plants in the ‘critical coal stock’ category.

In fact, it is the first time in over four years that no thermal power plant in the country was facing ‘super critical’ levels of coal stocks, that is dry fuel stocks of less than four days of consumption equivalent.

The Coal Ministry has also issued advisories to its counterparts in the Railway Ministry to make higher number of rail rakes available for transportation of coal from pitheads, until now a major bottleneck in ramping up dispatch by the miner, government officials said.

The government focus on ensuring higher coal availability to thermal power plants comes in the wake of 5% growth in electricity demand, at present, with the expectation of further spikes as the temperature starts rising over the next few months, the officials said, adding that demand for electricity could grow by 15% during the height of summer.

The Coal Ministry directive to CIL is also significant as the company has reported a fall in coal dispatch for the second consecutive month during January at 52.4-million tons, against 52.8-million tons in December.

Although not officially stated, sources in government pointed out that various Ministries, such as coal, power and railways, have stepped up efforts to ensure higher availability of coal for thermal power plants, to avoid any risks of power shortage and failure of electricity supply to consumers of electricity distribution companies during the summer months, during which India would be having its national elections and power cuts could trigger voters’ ire.

Indian elections will be held in six phases starting on April 11, and concluding with the counting of votes on May 23.