Indian power producers want more coal on rail to lower costs
KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – Indian private thermal power companies are seeking to shift more coal from roads to State-run Indian Railways (IR) to bring down logistical costs.
Private thermal power utilities reckon that higher dispatches of coal by State miner Coal India Limited (CIL) through IR will reduce the cost of coal by at least 25% and that the benefits could be passed on to consumers through lower electricity tariffs.
The Association of Power Producers has worked out that one rake of IR could transport 4 000 t of coal, while the same volume would require 135 trucks, each with 30 t capacity. Not only does road transport increase costs, it also takes longer and could be erratic, causing a shortfall of feedstock at plant sites, the association said in a communication to IR and CIL.
During 2018/19, IR coal freight movement was 1.16-billion tons, 53-million tons higher than the previous financial year and accounting for more than 40% of the transporter’s total freight traffic.
Citing an example, the private power companies point out that South Eastern Coalfields, with mining operations in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, produced about 130-million tons a year of coal, meeting an estimated demand of 32 000 MW of power generation capacity. However, these coalfields require 45 rakes a day, but receive wagon allocations of only about 25 rakes a day on average, forcing the thermal power companies to transport their dry fuel requirement by truck.
The plea of private power companies is contrary to an earlier decision by CIL to increase road transport for thermal power plants where distances between mine and plant locations are shorter. Power plants within a radius of 20 km of coal mines will need to transport their coal by roads, as per plans of the miner.
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