KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – After calling a halt to imported coal, India’s largest power company, NTPC, is aiming to source at least 25% of its thermal coal requirement from its own mines, over the next five years.
The power utility will be commissioning 4 000 MW of additional thermal power generating capacity in the current financial year, with Coal India Limited (CIL) expected to make available the entire thermal coal requirement.
NTPC has not signed any new thermal coal contracts in the last eight months. However, an estimated seven-million tons of coal are expected to be shipped in over the next several months, based on old import contracts.
The power company’s reduced import dependency will see it rely more on the captive coal block – Pakri Barwadih, in the eastern Indian province of Jharkhand – which is expected to start coal production within the next two to three months.
The mine will produce two- to three-million tons a year and progressively ramp up to 18-million tons a year over a period of five years.
NTPC has secured as many as ten coal blocks through successful bids at auctions. When fully operational, these ten mines held the potential to produce 100-million tons a year of coal to feed the thermal power plants of the company.
However, the sticking point for the company is that, barring Pakri Barwadih, none of the other coal blocks are near commercial production, as most of them have been caught up in delays over securing mandatory approvals for various provincial and federal governments.
In the current year, NTPC’s total thermal coal requirement has been estimated at 160-million tons. With the company halting all imports, the entire demand is expected to be met by CIL.