With the national capital facing acute power crisis and the overall electricity generation still not up to the mark, Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday asked Coal India ltd (CIl) to boost its output from existing mines as well as increase supplies to stations by reducing the e-auction quota.
"We need to enhance the supply of coal. We have requested the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to allow additional mining from coal reserves which are already operational. Reduction in quantity of coal at the time of e-auction will enable additional supplies to power sector," Goyal told reporters after addressing meeting of private sector power companies.
Goyal, met representatives of major power companies like Anil Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Power, Gautam Adani, Chairman of Adani Group, Vineet Mittal, Managing Director of Welspun Energy, and Naveen Jindal, Chairman of Jindal Power, to look for solutions to address the country's electricity woes.
"We have asked Coal India to expand coal production to the tune of 50-60 per cent for all power companies in the state sector or private sector. We need to enhance power availability in the country," the minister said.Goyal added that the issue of quality of coal was also discussed during the four-hour meeting with the private power producers and other stakeholders.
Power generation has suffered as CIl has been unable to meet production targets for reasons including delayed approvals for new mines. Importing coal to make up for the shortfall is expensive and utilities are not always able to pass on the higher costs to consumers.CIl sells about 7 per cent of its production through e-auctions, where smaller, non-power users walk away with most supplies as electricity generation companies do not bid aggressively in view of tariff caps.
About 60 per cent of India's installed generation capacity uses coal. The minister asked Coal India to increase supplies of the fuel to power stations and said projects where construction is complete should get preference in allocation.