8.3. Coal

As per International Energy Agency (IEA), India was the third largest producer and second largest importer of coal in 2014 in the world. India has large reserves of coal and by the end of FY16, total coal reserves in India stood at 308.802 billion tonnes. In wake of the surging domestic coal production, the country’s power sector is becoming increasingly stable. Companies are developing captive coal fields to reduce price volatility & ensure uninterrupted supply of fuel to control generation cost. Government has enabled the power utilities for swapping their coal supplies with the nearest sources so as to save miscellaneous costs & decongest the rail network.

The growth of domestic coal supply to power plants has been around 6.2% during 2015-16. Coal based power generation during 2016-17 was 595.124 BU, showing a growth rate of 5.92% over the same period in the previous year. Till September, 2016, a total of 3000 MW of inefficient thermal generating capacity has been retired.

The Coal Mitra Web Portal, launched by Shri Piyush Goyal on 21st December, 2016, has been designed to bring about flexibility in Utilization of Domestic Coal by transferring the reserves to more cost efficient State/Centre owned or Private Sector generating stations, leading to lower generation costs and ultimately lesser cost of electricity for the consumers.

Separate e-auction window of coal for Power Sector is started. Third Party Sampling is done yo improve process of measurement of quality of coal