Despite a decline in coal supplies to the power sector by State-miner, Coal India Limited (CIL), during April 2019 to January 2020, no thermal power plant of India’s largest power producer, NTPC, is facing any shortage of dry fuel, indicating low demand for energy and overall economic slowdown. As per information available from CIL, coal supplies to the thermal power sector during the first nine months of the current financial year are down 7%, at 378-million tons. For the first time in three years, no thermal power plant operated by NTPC or through any of its joint ventures faces a coal shortage or is categorised as ‘critical’ or ‘super critical’ in terms of fuel stocks by Central Electricity Authority. Officials say that every power plant operated by NTPC currently carries coal stock of more than 20 days equivalent consumption, well over the critical levels threshold.
