Power Min asks imported coal-based plants to run at full capacity till Sept 30

New Delhi: The Ministry of Power on Monday extended the time period of its direction to all thermal plants using imported coal to operate at full capacity by three-and-a-half months till September 30 to avoid electricity shortage amid rising demand in the country.

Peak power demand met or the highest supply in a day touched a record high of 223.23 GW on June 9, 2023.

A power ministry notice shot off on Monday to 15 imported coal-based thermal power projects, stated: "It has now been decided to extend the time period for Section 11 to imported coal-based generators up to September 30, 2023."

Earlier in February, the ministry asked these imported coal based plants to operate at full capacity from March 16, 2023, to June 15, 2023, invoking Section 11 of the Electricity Act 2003 to avoid any outage due to a sudden rise in power demand.

Peak power demand was estimated to touch a record high of 229GW during this summer. However, unseasonal rains affected the demand as people used fewer cooling appliances like air conditioners which guzzle electricity.

The 15 imported coal-based (ICB) power plants include Tata Power and Adani Power's plants in Mundra in Gujarat; Essar power plant in Salaya; JSW Ratnagiri; Tata Trombay; Udupi Power; Meenakshi Energy; and JSW Torangallu.

The country's peak power demand is estimated to touch 230GW in 2023.

In December 2022, Union power secretary Alok Kumar had said that the government will take all possible measures to meet the 230 gigawatt (GW) single-day peak demand.

The ministry's notice issued to imported coal-based (ICB) plants in February noted that in the likely scenario of a gap in the demand and supply of domestic coal and essential requirement of maintaining coal stock at generating stations, the use of imported coal needs to be increased by way of blending with the domestic fuel in domestic coal-based plants and also by ensuring optimum generation from ICB plants.

This will ease the pressure on domestic coal supply and also ensure that all the plants are available during the peak demand period, it had noted.

The ministry has provided for pass through of higher cost of imported coal as well as the provision of sale of excess power in exchanges.

Besides, this year a new segment of High Price-Day Ahead Market was also launched to facilitate ICB plants, gas-based plants and battery energy storage projects to sell power at a price of up to Rs 50 per unit at exchanges.