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New UserCoal imports seen ending by 2017, new energy policy on anvil
17 Nov 2015
India would not have to import coal by 2017 — except to meet requirement of coastal power plants — as a result of several measures initiated by the government, even as a comprehensive energy policy is being worked out.
"By 2017, India should not need to import coal except for those coastal plants where it is very difficult to transmit coal. I am fairly confident the era of shortages is over," coal and power minister Piyush Goyal told an industry gathering organised by consultancy firm KPMG.
Addressing the same gathering, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the government is working on a comprehensive energy policy with NITI Aayog which will elaborate about energy mix of the country till 2050.
India spent some Rs 1 lakh crore to import 212 mt (million tonnes) of coal in 2014-15. But imports have been declining for the fourth consecutive month in October by 5% to 14.5 mt from a year-ago period. In September, coal imports dropped by more than 27% to 12.6 mt on rise in domestic production.
India is the third-largest producer of coal after China and the US with 299 billion tonnes of resources and 123 billion tonnes of proven reserves, which may last for over 100 years. The government has set a target of 1.5 billion tonnes of coal production by 2020.
India imports 80% of its oil requirements and spent $112.7 billion in 2014-15 to import 189.4 million tonne of crude. Low oil prices is expected to bring down this expenditure to $88 billion (at $65/barrel and $ exchange rate of Rs 62) in 2015-16 for a projected 188.2 million tonne of oil.
Goyal said the discoms debt recast would allow state-run power lending firm PFC and REC to lend $20 billion for transmission and renewables etc.
"At next level of UDAY - the debt recast plan for discoms announced recently - we are looking at complete ability to exchange coal or to swap coal, complete synergy in the in power and coal sectors so that coal is used most efficiently by the most efficient power plants at the nearest location and power is transmitted rather than coal," Goyal said.
He said that South India benefited by 5000 mw of additional power in last 18 months and 20,000 mw additional transmission capacity are in the pipeline.