India’s thermal power plants have shown renewed interest for coal imports after the government allowed to raise imports amid supply tightness in the domestic market.
However, aggressive import procurement was seen by the plants designed to run on domestic coal in the first quarter of FY2022-23 (April-June, 2022), with the country’s largest power company NTPC leading the way.
On the other hand, plants designed to run on imported coal, despite raising their purchases, have procured lesser material than the year-ago period.
Plant-wise coal imports
Acting on the government’s directive, the domestic coal-based plants have imported 9.21 million tonnes (mnt) of coal for blending purpose in the first quarter of FY23, thereby registering an exponential growth of 200% y-o-y against 3.07 mnt in Q1FY22.
Notably, the quantum of imports for blending in Q1 has already surpassed the total imports of 8.11 mnt recorded in FY22. During Q1FY23, electricity boards from Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra also received imported coal as against nil imports recorded in the year-ago period.
In contrast, procurement by plants designed to run on imported coal have decreased 12% y-o-y to 7.15 mnt.
Total coal imports by the plants have increased 46% y-o-y to 16.36 mnt during Q1FY23 against 11.23 mnt in Q1FY22.
Source: Power Ministry | Quantity in mnt
Current status of imported-based plants
At present, the country has 15 imported coal-based plants with combined installed capacity of 17,255 MW—which account for 8% of the total coal-fired plants’ fleet.
These plants were built across the coastal regions so as to avail considerable saving in coal movement via import-route compared with coal procurement from the far-away domestic mines.
However, soaring global prices have affected operations of these plants, with five of them namely- Salaya, Ratnagiri, Simhapuri, Thamminapatnam and Udupi – facing long-term absence from the grid. These plants have received nil imports during Q1FY23.
The remaining plants are also operating at a reduced capacity which has further curtailed requirement for imports.
The government directed the imported coal-based plants to resume operations at full capacity in order to ensure uninterrupted power supply. Nevertheless, with these plants currently running at low inventory levels, it is expected that the onus of power generation would be on the domestic coal-based plants in case there is sudden spike in demand.
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