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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Bengal coal import test by Srikumar Bondyopadhyay

Bengal coal import test by Srikumar Bondyopadhyay

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published Published on Oct 14, 2011   modified Modified on Oct 14, 2011

The power position in Bengal improved today but alarm bells are ringing over imported coal stocks that are running out fast.

“The stock of imported coal will exhaust by the end of this month,” said Krishna Gupta, the managing director of the West Bengal Power Development Corporation Ltd (WBPDCL), the largest electricity supplier in the state.

The corporation had last year imported 1.2 million tonnes of coal from Indonesia.

“We will come up with a fresh tender to import 1.5 million tonnes of coal by the end of this month or early November,” Gupta added.

He did not say why the corporation waited till the eleventh hour for floating the tender. Between tendering and the arrival of the consignment, a time lag of at least a month is expected.

However, a government official said the corporation appeared to have waited because the new state government did not give the green signal to raise tariffs.

The price of the Indonesian variety that the corporation imports rules at Rs 4,500 per tonne. The utility will need least Rs 675 crore for the quantity it is planning to import.

Hand-wringing over whether the cash-strapped state government, the sole owner of the power utility, will dole out the money appeared to have held back the company till now. The new government had restricted the company from filing a petition with the regulator for revising the tariff.

The 1.5 million tonnes on the import wish list do not account for more than 8 per cent of the total requirement but when the barrel is being scraped, every tonne counts.

“We have to go in for imports because the current stocks will last only a month or so. The improvement in supply from Coal India over the last couple of days is temporary. Coal India will ask for money after a week to supply more,” Gupta said. He discounted the possibility of market borrowing. “Who will give us money looking at our current balance sheet?”

Another official said: “Till August, we thought that we would be allowed to file the petition for the tariff revision. But that didn’t happen. Tendering is a simple process and it can take a month to get the coal imported. The bigger question is the money.”

The supply of coal from captive mines is also dwindling. Bengal EMTA, a joint venture, is supplying only two to three rakes a day. One rake packs around 3,500 tonnes.

The corporation requires 55,000 tonnes (or 16 rakes) of coal a day. In other words, supply from the captive mines now accounts for only 12-13 per cent of its requirement. “Our biggest captive coal blocks, Tara (East) and Tara (West), are old and hence output is coming down,” Gupta said.

As a consequence, the corporation’s dependence on Coal India has increased to 75 per cent now from 55 per cent.

The power shortfall in the districts today was 325MW, around 400MW less than yesterday. The supply went up because of the arrival of more rakes of coal and flow from the national grid.

The Telegraph, 15 October, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1111015/jsp/frontpage/story_14626690.jsp


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