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Coal India posts supply dip
INDIA
COAL India Limited’s (CIL) supply of coal to the power sector dipped by 2.6% to 80.9mn tonnes in April and May as power plants reported healthy feedstock.
Supplies for May alone contracted by 4.9% to 40.6mn tonnes, government data showed.
Meanwhile, coal supply by state-owned miner SCCL also dropped by 2% to 9.4mn tonnes in April and May.
e declining gures were seen as a seasonal dip and do not hide the underlying rise in coal production, consumption and imports in India.
For the year to March 2019, imports rose by 12.9% to 235.2mn tonnes, compared with 208.2mn tonnes the year before.
Meanwhile, CIL’s own coal production grew by 7% to 607mn tonnes in the same year to March. e increase means CIL’s production has expanded by 100mn tpy over the last three years, during which the central government has repeat- edly exhorted the miner to deliver more.
e government said that no power plants were facing fuel shortages and that no facilities had reported any loss of generation caused by
coal supply constraints.
CIL, which accounts for more than 80% of
domestic coal output, is targeting more than 8% growth in production at 660mn tonnes in 2019-20, compared with 607mn tonnes in the last scal.
CIL subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) aims to double production to 300mn tpy by 2026, mainly by upgrading rail infrastructure.
MCL, one of CIL’s two largest producing units along with South Eastern Coal elds Lim- ited (SECL), produced 144mn tonnes during the year to March 2019 and aims to raise this gure to 160mn tonnes in 2019-2020.
Coal is a key political tool in the country, and the nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned in the recent gen- eral election on the promise of delivering elec- tricity to the entire population.
One by-product of the drive for coal is that India’s 2018 CO2 emissions increased faster than any other country on a per capita basis, although emissions remain low at only 40% of the global average, the IEA said.™
RETAIL
Korea’s KEPCO to cut summer tariffs
SOUTH KOREA
STATE-RUN utility Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) has agreed to subsidise power tari s this summer in a bid to cut residential power bills by up to 18%.
On June 28, KEPCO said it would revise its tari s during the two summer months when the use of air conditioning is at its highest.
e KEPCO board approved the deal a er the government had recommended easing tari s during the summer in a bid to avoid the public protests against high power bills seen in 2018.
e government panel that recommended the cut claimed that more than 16 million house- holds could see their bills fall by up to 10,142 won ($8.76) per month.
e KEPCO board only agreed to the move a er the government agreed to provide a sub- sidy, after company executives claimed they could face 300bn won ($260mn) in lost revenue.
KEPCO is to raise the upper thresholds for the rst two bands of its progressive residential tari regime for the months of July and August.
e government’s decision to cover KEPCO’s losses must still be approved by the National Assembly.
The government’s initiative comes after an angry public response to high power bills in summer 2018, when soaring temperatures
increased the use of air conditioning. This pushed many households into the higher tari bracket and added extra to their bills.
At the start of June, the government made the decision to changes tari s, as temperatures are forecast to be high again this summer.
KEPCO posted an operating loss of 630bn won ($544mn) in the rst quarter of 2018, up from a 128bn won ($111mn) a year earlier.
In 2018, the government lowered residential electricity prices by 19.5% on average per house- hold a er consumers complained about high tari s and the complex nature of the progressive tari system. ™
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Week 26 02•July•2019