Centre encroaching on states’ authority to cover up short supply of coal – AIPEF
Bahadurjeet Singh /Rupnagar
The central government is encroaching on the state authority and forcing them to buy imported coal to cover up its own inefficiencies in supplying domestic coal to thermal plants, an All India power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) spokesperson VK Gupta said on Thursday.,
He said that ministry of power has issued directions to generating companies under Section 11 of the Electricity Act 2003 is pushing states to import coal to increase blending to supplement domestic coal to offset the short supply of Indian coal by Coal India Ltd. (CIL).
It has also asked all imported coal-based power units to run at full capacity and the upward revision of tariff will be issued by a committee..
VK Gupta said that the jurisdiction of the central government in applying section 11 of Electricity Act 2003, is limited to a generating company that is wholly or partly owned by it and the inter-state generating stations. In the case of state. governments owned generating stations, it is the jurisdiction of the state government in the matter of applying Sec 11.
He said that the non receipt of sufficient quantity of coal at thermal plants across the country was lack of coordination between three ministries viz Coal, Railway and Power.
AIPEF has written to union power minister R K Singh that the government must now take up the responsibility to import coal on the government to government basis and ensure that the imported coal is made available to state generating companies at the prevailing CIL rates. The additional cost to overcome coal shortage due to the central government’s policy lapses should not burden the state.
Centre encroaching on states’ authority to cover up short supply of coal – AIPEF. The tariff of central government thermal plants run by NTPC would increase by 50-70 paise and it will be passed on to electricity consumers.
The Uttar Pradesh government has decided not to import coal for power generation in the state, despite a Centre’s directive.
Gupta cautioned that another power crisis may be coming soon, in case coal stocks in India’s thermal power plants are not ramped up before the monsoon.
The coal supply for June has already been reduced by 10 to 12%.by the ministry.
In the case of Punjab and Haryana,the power demand will rise sharply with the irrigation load going up along with the paddy plantation from the middle of June. The domestic and industrial demand will also increase because of the coming hot and humid weather.“Besides, production in coal mines decreases during the monsoon season,”
May 26,2022
