It would be the first time since 2015 that Coal India has imported the fuel, underscoring efforts by state and federal officials to build stockpiles to avoid a repeat of April, when India faced its worst cuts. electricity for more than six years.
“Coal India would import coal for blending on a government-to-government (G2G) basis and supply it…to thermal power plants of state producers and independent power producers (IPPs),” the Federal Minister said. energy in the letter dated May 28.
The letter was sent to all utilities, senior federal and state energy officials, including the federal coal secretary and the chairman of Coal India.
India is expected to face a greater coal shortage in the third quarter of 2022 due to expectations of higher power demand, fueling fears of widespread power outages.
The Department of Energy said in the letter that the decision was made after nearly every state suggested that multiple state coal import tenders would lead to confusion and called for centralized supply by through Coal India.
In recent days, India has stepped up pressure on power companies to increase imports to mix with local coal, warning of cuts in the supply of locally mined coal if power plants were not building up coal stocks through imports.
But the Minister of Energy asked the states on Saturday to suspend calls for tenders which are “being processed”.
“Tenders being processed by state power producers and IPPs for the import of coal for blending may be suspended pending discovery of prices by Coal India through the G2G channel, in order to obtain coal at the best possible price,” the minister said.
Coal stocks at power plants have fallen by around 13% since April to the lowest levels in years before the summer.