State-owned Coal India on Monday said its supply of fossil fuel to the country’s coal-fired electricity generating units increased by six per cent to 23.5 million tonnes in the first half of October, ahead of the festive season.

The supply was increased amid a sudden rise in power demand even as unseasonal rains hit the operations in coal bearing areas of Coal India’s arms based in the eastern part of the nation.

Chattishgarh-based South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL) also bore the brunt of the inclement weather, it said.

Coal supply to thermal power plants stood at 22.2 million tonnes during the same period of the last financial year.

“Coal India’s (CIL) supplies to thermal power plants of the country shot up close to six per cent to 23.5 million tonnes (MTs) during the first fortnight of October 2023... Comparatively the supplies were 22.2 MTs in the same period of October 2022,” the public sector coal producer said in a statement.

The overall supply of dry fuel by CIL to the country’s coal-fired plants was nearly 319 MT till October 15 of the ongoing fiscal, which was 12 MT higher in volume terms compared to 307 MTs supplied during the corresponding period of FY23.

“The four per cent growth recorded during this period is at par with current year’s annual asking growth rate to power plants,” it said.

CIL was given a projection of 610 MT supply to the country’s power plants for the ongoing fiscal, which is four per cent more than what it supplied to this sector in FY23.

The ‘maharatna’ firm expects its supplies to exceed the target.

“On a cumulative basis CIL’s targeted commitment was 316 MT to power sector till 15th October FY 2024, against which the company’s supplies were ahead by 3 MTs at 319 MTs. CIL is confident of meeting the tasked target to the power sector,” it said.

Coal is the largest source of electricity in the country and CIL produces over 80 per cent of the fuel in India.

“CIL’s supplies to all consuming sectors were 389.3 MT during the referred period posting nine per cent growth compared to 356.6 MT of same period last fiscal year,” it said.

“With no letup in the output tempo, CIL’s progressive production of 360 MTs till 15th October FY 2024 has logged a robust 11.6 per cent year-on-year growth with 37.6 MT expansion in volume terms. This growth is again higher than the fiscal’s asking rate of around 11 per cent,” the company said.