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Coal India has increased supplies to power plants owing to rising demandNew Delhi: Country’s largest dry fuel producer Coal India Limited (CIL) on Tuesday said it has increased supplies by 14.2 per cent to coal-based electricity generating plants in the first half of the current month, but soaring power demand due to hotter-than-normal summer seems to have dwarfed the upsurge in supplies.CIL said that it is coordinating with the ministries of coal, power and railways to build up stocks at power plants in a synergic effort, in the wake of a decline in coal stocks at power plants.”Amid the spiraling power generation, CIL raised its supplies to thermal power stations by 14.2 per cent during the first half of April 2022 compared to the same period last April,” the Maharatna company said.CIL’s supplies have hit 1.6 million tonnes per day during this period, against 1.43 million tonnes in the corresponding period of last year.The company had ramped up its production to 26.4 million tonnes during the first half of April, registering Y-o-Y growth of 27 per cent.”The company is heading for its highest April production ever. Output expansion in volume terms was 5.7 million tonnes,” it said.The company’s supplies are on the up so far. The pressure would ease if the imported coal-based power plants meet their requisite imports set for the year, it added.To tide over the intense demand, CIL has made available additional 8.75 million tonnes of coal to state and central generation companies for lifting through rail-cum-road (RCR) mode, till May 31. Of this, 3.25 million tonnes is the unlifted quantity of the earlier round of RCR offer and 5.5 million tonnes is the new offer.However, the escalating power demand driven up by the post pandemic economic buoyancy and hotter-than-normal summer seem to dwarf the upsurge in supplies, CIL said.Mercury levels have soared above 41 degrees centigrade in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.The Ministry of Earth Sciences has categorised heatwave status in these northern states. Maximum departure from normal temperature is ranging from 4.8 degrees to 6.2 degrees.The country’s total power generation was 9.5 per cent higher, at an average of 4.53 billion units (BU), till April 15 over the same period last year.The increase was 400 million units per day, against the average generation of 4.13 BU for the comparative period.



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