Lok Sabha Question No. 874 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-04-28
Subject: Shortage of Fuel
Ministry: POWER
Asked by: BHARTRUHARI MAHTAB, SANJAY SHAMRAO DHOTRE

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF POWER

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.874 TO BE ANSWERED ON 28.04.2016

## SHORTAGE OF FUEL

874.   SHRI BHARTRUHARI MAHTAB: SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE:

Will the Minister of POWER be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the shortage/non-availability of fuel for power generation plants/stations and its adverse impact on power generation of various States is still persist  in  the  country  despite  several  measures  taken  by  the  Government  in  this regard;
- (b) if so, the details thereof along with the fuel supplied to power plants/stations across the country during the last three years and the current year, plant-wise;
- (c) whether there are a number of power plants/stations which are on the verge of closure due to high cost of fuel in the country, if so, the details thereof, Statewise;
- (d) whether the Government proposes to provide cheap fuel or financial assistance to such plants/stations for their survival in the country, if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the  other  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  to  ensure  timely uninterrupted fuel supply at affordable rates to the power generation plants/ stations across the country?

## A N S W E R

THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR POWER, COAL AND NEW & RENEWABLE ENERGY

( SHRI  PIYUSH GOYAL )

(a) to (e) : No, Madam.

At present, there is no shortage of coal in the country. None of the Coal based  power  generation  plants  across  the  country  have  reported  any  loss  of generation due to shortage of coal during 2015-16.

At present, as on 21 st  April, 2016, coal stock at power plants has been reported to be more than 37 Million Tonne (MT) by power utilities which is sufficient for  operation of power plants for about 25 days. Further, none of the power plants have reported critical / super critical coal stock position.

..........2.

At present, there is some deficit in availability of domestic gas. Due to Government  initiative,  the  scheme  of  utilisation  of  RLNG  (Regassified  Liquefied Natural  Gas)  helped  in  improving  the  generation  from  gas  based  power  stations. During 2015-16, the growth of generation from gas based power station was 14.6% over  the  same  period  last  year.  Enhanced  availability  of  domestic  coal  has  offset shortage of gas and has resulted in growth in overall thermal generation from coal & gas based power plants to 7.4 % during the year 2015-16 as well as reduction of 10.6 MT import of coal by power sector.

The  steps  being  taken  by  the  Government  to  ensure  uninterrupted supply of fuel to the thermal power plants, inter-alia, are:

- 1) Multi-dimensional  efforts are  underway  by  Coal  India  Ltd.  (CIL) to enhance production of domestic coal. A road map has been prepared by CIL to substantially enhance coal production level to one Billion Tonne by the year 2019-20 to meet the coal requirement.
- 2) Coal blocks have been allotted to central/ state power utilities to improve domestic coal availability.
- 3) The availability of coal is being regularly monitored closely at the highest level  in  the  Government  so  that  generation  of  power  plants  is  not affected due to shortage of coal.
- 4) Government of India has sanctioned a scheme for utilization of gas based power  generation  capacity  for  the  years  2015-16  and  2016-17.  The scheme envisages supply of imported spot RLNG (Regassified Liquefied Natural Gas) to the stranded gas based plants as well as plants receiving domestic  gas  at  subsidized  rates,  selected  through  a  reverse  e-biding process.

************