In order to manage the coal stock and ensure equitable distribution of coal, Ministry of Power constituted a Core Management Team (CMT) on August 27, 2021 comprising representatives from MoP, CEA, POSOCO, Railways and Coal India Ltd (CIL) – to ensure daily monitoring of the coal stocks and despaches. The CMT is closely monitoring and managing the coal stocks on daily basis and ensuring follow up actions with Coal India and Railways to improve the coal supply to power plants.
The demand for power has been increasing from August, 2021 onwards. In August, 2021, the power consumption was 124 Billion Unit (BU) whereas the consumption in August, 2019 (before the COVID period) was 106 BU. This was an increase of almost 18-20%. The increasing trend is persisting – the demand on August 4, 2021 was 1,74,000 MW – 15,000 MW more than on the corresponding day in the previous year.
There was continuous rain in the coal bearing areas in the months of August and September, 2021 leading to lower disptach from coal mines in this period. However, the despatches have picked-up again. On 04 October, 2021, the total number of rakes dispatched was 263, which is 15 rakes more than the rakes dispatched on August 03, 2021. It is expected that the despatches from coal lines will increase further. Now, the coal is being dispatched through rakes every day from the coal mines to thermal power plants.
