The Indian Railways has decided to priortise coal loading for the power sector for another month till 31 August, 2022. The facility introduced in April was set to expire on 31 July.
Under this provision, the national transporter accords higher priority for coal loading to the central, state-run and independent power plants from goods sheds and private washeries.
The railways in conjunction with Ministries of Power and Coal has taken several measures to pull the power plants facing shortage of coal inventory out of crisis amidst an unprecedented rise in power demand.
These include intensive monitoring of coal trains during the entire cycle from loading to movement and finally unloading in order to reduce the transit time, which has led to an incremental rise in coal supply to the plants.
Current situation at power plants
Supported by an uptick in supplies, coal inventory at power plants has gradually improved to 29.54 mnt on 28 July. This marks significant recovery from the lows of 21.94 mnt seen at the end of April.
The extension in priority loading would further aid these plants in scaling up their inventory levels during the monsoon in order to avert any crisis.
Notably, it was only in August last year when the rebound in industrial activity had triggered higher coal consumption at power plants. At the same time, the power producers were caught off-guard by lower supply during monsoon.
As a result, the inventory at power plants had fallen to a three-year low of 11.41 mnt towards the end of September, 2021.
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