CERC directed to allow utilities import up to 30% of their coal needs
In the public interest, the CERC has been directed by the MoP to allow up to 30 per cent of imported coal blending without consulting beneficiaries until March 31.
India has asked the country’s power regulator to allow power generators to import up to 30% of their coal requirements from abroad until March next year, according to a letter from the Indian Power Ministry.
Power generation utilities have been asked to import 10 per cent of their total coal requirement, approx. 38 million tonnes, to blend with local coal as demand was outstripping supply. It was emphasized that the utilities need to ensure the delivery of 19 million tonnes by end-June 2022.
In this regards a central power ministry official has written a letter to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) in Mat end, citing a “public interest” provision in India’s electricity law. The demand to allow more imported coal reflects the severity of the domestic shortage, which has caused the country’s worst power cuts in more than six years.
In a letter sent by the ministry of power to CERC, the government has directed the agency to allow an increase in the blending of imported coal up to 30 percent until 31st March 2023, in compliance with a decision made by MoP, without consulting beneficiaries.
However, as per available information from MoP, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission denied permission for some state government-run utilities to import coal, because the quantity of coal these utilities wished to import would potentially violate rules which restrict generators from blending imported coal beyond a certain extent without the consent of beneficiaries.
A senior MoP official noted in a letter that power plant inventories were depleting at an “alarming” rate and that domestic coal need to be saved and production should be increased to build reasonable stocks at power plants before the monsoon arrived.
