Coal news and updates

Coal stocks at power plants cross 18.5-mt level

February 20: With the increase in domestic coal production and improvement in despatches, coal stocks at 100 thermal power plants (TPS) across India crossed the 18.5-million tons (mt) level and reached 18.989 mt as on February 18, 2015, according to data released by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

Coal stocks at the 100 TPS on February 18 went up from 17.847 mt recorded on February 10, 2015 whereas on February 1, coal stocks at the power plants stood even lower at 16.598 mt, data showed.

This shows, there has been a steady increase in coal stocks at the power plants on a week-on-week basis during the month of February.

However, in terms of days, there were coal stocks for 12 days on February 18 and 11 on February 10. It stood at 10 days on February 1.

Stocks of imported and domestic coals stood at 2.379 mt and 16.611 mt, respectively on February 18 while imported and domestic coal stocks stood at 2.284 mt and 15.563 mt, respectively on February 10.

On the other hand, stocks of imported and domestic coals stood at 2.202 mt and 14.396 mt, respectively on February 1.

The change in the overall coal stocks situation also affected the number of plants facing a critical coal stocks situation of less than four days, the CEA data revealed.

The number of plants facing critical coal stocks position of less than seven days stood at 24 on February 18, at 22 on February 10 and at 33 on February 1, as per data made available by the CEA.

The number of plants facing a super-critical coal stocks scenario of less than four days stood at 9 on February 18 and February 10. However, it stood at 13 on February 1.