NEW DELHI, Mar 14: Thermal power generation in the country has fallen short by 38.2 Billion Unit (BU) in last three years due to lack of coal supply to the power stations. “The loss of generation to thermal power stations due to shortage of coal during the last three years and the current year as reported by power utilities to Central Electricity Authority (CEA) is 38.2 BU,” the Minister of Coal,Power and New & Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal said. In order to bridge the shortfall in domestic availability of coal, power utilities were advised by CEA to import coal, Mr Goyal informed the Lok Sabha recently. However, import of coal is a prerogative of respective power utilities and quantity of coal import for blending purpose depends upon design parameter of the boiler etc and getting generation schedule by a power plant in merit order scheduling, he said. The country, which relies on coal for about three-fifths of its energy needs, is turning to increased coal imports because of insufficient domestic mining, despite holding the world’s fifth-largest reserves of the fossil fuel.
(UNI)
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