Govt weighs mandatory blending of imported coal at power plants: Sources
New Delhi: India is considering telling power plants to blend imported coal with domestic supplies for the first time since 2024, three government sources said, to ease a supply crunch that has pushed monthly spot power prices to their highest since 2022.
Under the plan being discussed by officials of the Power Ministry, thermal power plants would have to blend up to 5% imported coal with domestic coal, the sources said.
The plan represents a sharp reversal in New Delhi’s drive to boost domestic coal production and curb imports, which helped prune overseas supplies over the past two years. Most of India’s coal-fired power plants rely primarily on domestic coal, but can blend up to 15% imported coal.
The government’s previous coal-blending directives ran from December 2021 to March 2024. Coal inventories at power plants have fallen nearly twice as fast as a year before as September electricity demand held at levels seen during India’s summer season. Stocks fell nearly 49% in the three months to September, compared to a decline of 26% in the year-ago period.
Coal stocks at thermal power stations fell to 22.9 million tonnes on September 19, providing seven days of fuel cover, while 74 plants had critically low inventories, according to Central Electricity Authority data.
The rapid depletion is prompting New Delhi to consider mandating imports to save domestic coal for use next summer. The discussion is at an early stage, one of the sources said.
