Page 7 - AsiaElec Week 10 2023

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India’s Old King Coal is back but

overly optimistic

INDIA “KING coal is coming back and coming back at slightly more than 900mn tonnes.
with a big bang” Jindal Power chairman , Anil Cynics have pointed out, though, that long-
Kuma Jha announced at the first Coaltrans India term energy targets in India are routinely missed,
conference to be held in the country since early with much lauded renewables claims recently
2020. falling well short of intended goals, despite being
Once a regular event on the nation’s coal indus- celebrated when first announced.
try calendar, Coaltrans, like so many other gath- The same cynics say this does not bode well for Import figures
erings in recent years, was hit by COVID bans on long-term coal projections either.
gathering and travel. It is an issue Coal India Ltd (CIL) as the gov- have risen
In its return from a pandemic forced hiatus, ernment’s state-controlled mining giant is well
though, it was generally agreed that a recent aware of. steadily of
boom in applications to open new mines and Currently responsible for around 80% of all
increased import figures signal a return to the coal mined in the country, CIL needs to continue late, with
days coal ruled India’s energy roost in decades to raise its output at never before seen rates if the the 10.19mn
past. Coaltrans hype is to believed.
There were naysayers, however, with doubts At present, only time will tell if the hopes of tonnes coming
cast on just how effective the nation’s exporters those speaking at Coaltrans become reality, with
would be at a time many around the world were some slightly more grounded analysts pointing to in during the
looking to slowly move away from coal powered coal imports as a safety net India would do well to
energy sources. maintain in spite of all the support being given to shorter month
Glaringly obvious too, and somewhat confus- domestic mining. of February the
ing to analysts, was the degree of self-confidence Import figures have steadily risen of late, with
in industry professionals when viewed alongside the 10.19mn tonnes coming in during the shorter highest since
national government commitments to scale month of February the highest since November
down its use of coal as New Delhi moves towards 2022, and almost half a million tonnes up on the November.
zero-emissions by 2070. 9.71mn tonnes brought in during January.
This was apparent in the complete lack of refer- With around 32 GW of new coal-powered
ence to an eventual phasing out of coal use during capacity currently under construction in India,
the event. and statistics showing that each gigawatt of power
Instead, speakers and other attendees were generated needs 3mn tonnes per year (tpy) of
reported to be more focused on a much antici- coal, imports may prove the key in giving the
pated domestic demand increase to 1.4bn tonnes industry the buoyancy needed to stay afloat and
by the end of the decade. viable longer than just the short term.
At present, overall demand across India stands As for the long term, the Coaltrans 2024 event
at just under 1bn tonnes, with estimates on min- and those held in the years following may need
ing output for the fiscal year 2022-23 coming in to re-evaluate. ™

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