Page 10 - AsiaElec Week 20 2022

AsiaElec COAL AsiaElec

Indian power engineers

urge government to

subsidise coal imports

INDIA INDIAN power engineers have urged Indian to ferry coal, and said while there was a require-
Power Minister RK Singh to subsidies the cost ment of 441 trains per day for movement of coal,
of importing coal at a time when coal prices are the availability was only 405 trains per day.
high and India’s power demand rockets during “In a situation of shortage of wagons, if and
record temperatures. when coal imports start, the priority of wagons
All India Power Engineers Federation would be given to movement of imported coal,
(AIPEF) chairman Shailendra Dubey said in a with the direct result that movement of domestic
letter that the government must subsidise the coal would suffer,” the letter added.
cost of imported coal in order to avoid the costs Out of the 17,600 MW of generating capacity
being passed on to almost bankrupt distribution running on imported coal, only 10,000 MW are
companies and end-customers. operating owing to high imported coal prices of
At the start of May, the Indian government up to $140 per tonne.
used emergency powers to require all power There is no government compensation
plants reliant on imported coal to run at full scheme to offset such high fuel prices, meaning
capacity until October 31 in a bid to boost power that power plant owners have had to shut some
generation capacity. The order comes amid pro- capacity rather than run at a loss.
jections of high peak demand of 220 GW in the Indian companies have been buying cheaper
coming summer months. Russian coal at a discount, as Western countries
The Ministry of Power has also required all refuse to buy Russian coal because of its invasion
state governments to use 10% imported coal in of Ukraine.
power generation in order to compensate for the India imported 1.04mn tonnes in March, the
shortage of domestic coal. highest figure since January 2020, while it could
“The present coal shortage is the combined double its imports in the coming year.
result of a number of gross policy errors of the India has increased its imports of Russian
Centre, with the crisis made worse due to short- oil, despite requests from the US that it halt
age of railway wagons,” said Dubey. imports.™
He also highlighted the shortage of wagons

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 20 18•May•2022