Coal news and updates

Final third-party sampling results to be on CIL portal

February 11: The final results of third party sampling and analysis of the coal to be supplied by Coal India Ltd (CIL) would, henceforth, be uploaded on the website of coal supplying companies.
This was approved at a meeting on Status of Revised Third Party Sampling to discuss the appointment of such agencies by the various power utilities and issues with respect to implementation of the revised sampling mechanism.

A total of 25 agencies had been empanelled jointly by power utilities and the Central Electricity Authority in August last year.

The CIL representative at the meeting clarified that billing will be done as per provisions of the fuel supply agreements (FSA) which stipulate that the initial coal bills are to be raised on the basis of the declared GCV bands due to the time-gap between the supply and sampling results.

However, the final adjustment of claims or counter-claims arising due to the analyses would be done by issuing credit or debit notes and thus the final payment shall be based on the analysis results of third party sampling, the official said.

The official further said that the third party may analyse the samples collected and prepared at the loading end at an accredited laboratory of their own choice but the option of the analysis of the coal samples in the laboratory of coal companies was kept open as an alternative if well-equipped laboratory of the third party sampler is not available.

It has been already agreed upon that the payment to the third party agency will be borne by the power utilities.