Concerned about the shortfall in overall power supply scenario across the country - with the deficit in supply for the current fiscal (till January 2015) being 3.8 per cent - the Government plans to expedite coal production and aims to speed up auction of remaining coal blocks as only 33 reserves have been bid out during the recently concluded exercise.
According to figures available with The Pioneer, out of the total requirement of 9,03,104 MU (mega unit) of power required across the country in the current financial year, the supply has fallen short by 3.8 per cent, or in other words only 8,68,591 MU of power had been provided for till January 2015.
The Power Ministry, concerned over the demand-supply gap in the country over the past few years, has plans to expedite coal supply to deficient thermal plants and for this purpose, the Coal Ministry is looking at expediting the second round of coal blocks auction as it has a large pool of blocks (more than 100 out of the 204 blocks which had been cancelled by the Supreme Court last year) to offer.
Sources though informed this newspaper that further clarity on resuming the auction of remaining blocks will come only once the Coal Mines (Special Provision) Bill 2015 is cleared by Rajya Sabha. Though at the same time, looking at the deficit in power demand-supply across the country, the process needs to be put on fast track, industry sources said. Coal India also plans to enhance its production capacity and Government for now has also not ruled out completely the option of importing coal, to meet the deficit, sources said.
With Piyush Goyal being both the Coal and Power Minister, synergising auction of coal blocks for fulfilling the requirement of thermal plants should not be an issue. However considering the fact that only 33 out of the originally planned 74 blocks (in both Schedule I and II) could be put on auction, and here too not all of them are for power sector, therefore the second round of bidding needs to started soon.
The original list got pruned as many blocks were taken away owing to technical as well as legal reasons. Though around 40-odd blocks have also been earmarked for state power entities and will be directly allotted to them. Official sources said that the power supply-demand figures are for the period between April 2014 and January 2015, during which the power supply deficit was 34,513 MU (or 3.8 per cent less than the requirement of 9,03,104 MU).
While this deficit was in the normal demand-supply of electricity across 28 states of the country, sources said that even in the peak demand-supply requirement, there was a shortfall of 4.7 per cent. Between April 2015 and January 2015 the peak power requirement was 1,48,166 mw whereas the availability was only 1,41,160 mw, a shortfall of 7,006 mw.
Apart from speeding up coal blocks auction, the Government plans to construct around 1,07,440 ckm of transmission lines and set up 2,82,740 MVA transformation capacity during the ongoing 12th Plan. During this period, the Government also plans to augment renewable energy capacity also and will be adding 30,000 mw of it.
Sources added that with the new schemes which the NDA Government has announced after coming to power, Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana and Integrated Power Develelopment Scheme, will also help in the long run to cut down the deficit in supply and demand of electricity across the country.