India wants regulators to allow 30% coal import

Indian Government has asked its federal power regulator to permit power generators to import up to 30% of the country’s coal demand till March next year, reported Reuters.

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As demand outstripped supply, India had urged utilities to import 10% of its overall consumption, or around 38 million tonnes, to mix with domestic coal, with the delivery of 19 million tonnes required by end-June.

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However, a federal power ministry official, according to Reuters, wrote a letter to the secretary of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) on May 18 saying it was “imperative” that power generators be permitted to utilise additional imported coal, citing a “public interest” provision in India’s electricity legislation.

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The need to let additional imported coal underlines the seriousness of the domestic shortage, which has resulted in the biggest power outages in more than six years as a heatwave bakes broad swaths of South Asia.

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“In the public interest, CERC is hereby directed to immediately allow the higher amount of blending of up to 30% with imported coal in compliance with the decision of the Ministry of Power, without beneficiaries’ consultation up to March 31,” the letter read.

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CERC had rejected several State government-run utilities’ permission to import, a power ministry official told Reuters, since the quantity might potentially breach laws prohibiting generators from mixing imported coal above a specific extent without the approval of beneficiaries.

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“There is an urgent need to preserve domestic coal in order to create appropriate coal reserves at power plants before the monsoon,” the official told Reuters, adding that power plant inventories were depleting at a “worrisome” rate.