Government asked to divert E auction coal to power sector

Friday, 27 Jan 2012

Faced with acute fuel scarcity, private power producers, including Reliance, Adanis and TATAs have suggested to Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh that the coal set side for e auction be diverted for power sector at notified prices.

The Association of Power Producers came up with detailed suggestions to address multiple woes plaguing the sector, just days after chiefs of private power companies met the Prime Minister on January 18.

APP in a communication to the Prime Minister’s Office said that “To meet the current (fuel) deficit situation, e auction coal should be diverted for the power sector at notified prices (to avoid tariff shocks).”

APP members that include Adanis, Reliance, TATAs, Essar, Lanco and GMR, account for over 95% of the power capacity in the private sector.

The communication said that “Available coal should be equally distributed to all the plants against FSA/Letter of Assurance/MoU instead of old plants with less efficient operation getting 100% coal and newer, more efficient and higher sized power critical units getting deprived of coal.”

As per the communication, the private power producers have also suggested that domestic coal should be reserved for regulated sectors such as power and fertiliser.

In August last year, a parliamentary panel had said that coal availability for power plants designed to run on indigenous coal would be only 417.5 MT in the current fiscal, as against the requirement of 480 MT.

(Sourced from BL)