Coal India’s supply to the power sector has registered a 6.8 per cent decline to 377.86 million tonnes (mt) in the April-January period amid subdued demand. Dispatch to the power sector was 405.61mt in the year ago period.

However, the coal despatch by CIL to the power sector in January registered an increase of 2.9 per cent to 43.20mt, over 42mt in the corresponding month of the previous fiscal.

According to Coal India officials, a combination of subdued demand of the dry fuel and heavy rain during monsoon has affected offtake. However, there is adequate supply of around 76mtin the system including stock at power plants and the pitheads.

“Power plants are adequately stocked with around 20 days of coal. Moreover coal is also available at the pitheads. As and when the demand picks up, we would step up supply. In between efforts are on to clear arrear coal demand of the non power sector,” said a CIL source.

CIL saw its production decline by 3.9 per cent to 451.52mt in April-January period, over 469.65mt in the year-ago period. The state-owned firm had earlier said that it will produce 750mt of coal in the next financial year.

The PSU will further produce 1 billion tonnes by 2023-2024, coal minister Pralhad Joshi had said. The public sector undertaking has been given the target to produce 660 million tonnes amounting to 82 per cent of the country's output in the ongoing fiscal.

The government is also looking to stop imports and is planning to substitute the entire thermal coal import by 2023-24. For, this the government is looking to offer more coal blocks for auction according to Joshi. The coal ministry also plans to co-ordinate with the railways and the shipping ministry to enable CIL, and the captive and commercial miners to evacuate more coal by 2030.

According to Icra, the impact of the decline of thermal power generation however has been limited with supply rising from hydro, nuclear and renewables.