look news india
Ahmedabad: Coal India Ltd, the world's largest coal company and India's Navratna, has opened all doors for coal supply to power generation units by removing all restrictions on contracted quantities. From now on, any power plant having a fuel supply agreement (FSA) with Coal India can buy coal as per its requirement.
In a regulatory filing, the company said, “Coal India has opened the way for supply of coal in excess of the annual contracted quantity (ACQ) to all thermal power plants in the country, including independent power plants or privately owned units.” In the week of June, Coal India's board approved the proposal to supply in excess of ACQ. This new provision will bring ease and flexibility in doing business and prevent duplication of work.
Most importantly, the additional supply to the power plant will be made at the contract price with Coal India. Earlier, power plants were allowed to supply a maximum of 120 per cent of ACQ.
The concept of ACQ was first introduced in the new Coal Development Policy launched in 2007. The supply limit at that time was 80 to 90 per cent which was increased to 100 per cent of the plant requirement at the end of 2022-23 and 120 per cent in 2023-24 due to additional availability of coal with Coal India.
Coal India currently has coal reserves of 72 million tonnes, which is 47 per cent more than the 49 million tonnes as of August 12, 2023.
Power plants have a national average of 14 days of coal stocks, a record high during the monsoon months compared to the past few years.
