India
India Faces Coal Tightness Ahead Of Next Summer
Many thermal plants now hold only a few days of fuel.
Many thermal plants now hold only a few days of fuel.
India’s coal stocks at have fallen sharply after starting the year at very high levels, adding pressure to electricity planning. Strong demand for power, heavy coal use and slower refilling cut stockpiles from comfortable levels in April to a much tighter level by late September, leaving many plants with only a few days of fuel. That matters because coal still produces most of India’s power, so low stocks can force plants to reduce output or rush to secure more coal.
Officials say the country still has enough coal overall, but the drop shows a gap between national totals and what plants need on site. Supporters of the government say this is partly a correction after stocks had built up. Critics say repeated shortages point to deeper problems in , with higher costs and a greater risk of local outages if demand stays strong.
By the end of September, plant coal stocks had fallen to about 18.6 million tonnes from 54.9 million tonnes at the start of April, a drop of about 66%. That scale of depletion sharpened questions about whether the system had merely normalized after an unusually high buffer or was under deeper . Officials and analysts then focused on rebuilding stocks before and on whether might be needed if domestic inventories could not recover fast enough.
Late-September data showed coal inventories at domestic coal-based power plants had dropped to 19.2 million tonnes, about 64% below . Other reports put at 22.9 million tonnes on September 19, enough for only about seven days, with 74 plants classed as . The end-month picture made clear the drawdown had become severe and widespread.
data showed 61 thermal plants were already in by September 7, then 66 by September 14. Plant stocks had fallen to about 26.4 million tonnes, or roughly 45% of the , and some stations had only a few days of cover. This marked the transition from a normal drawdown to a system-wide fuel-security concern.
The Coal Ministry said India had enough coal to meet about 62 days of power-sector demand and described the buffer as comfortable. It pointed to 34.55 million tonnes at and 113 million tonnes at pits and . The message was that supply was still adequate even as consumption stayed strong.
In July, the Coal Ministry said coal stocks were still comfortable, with thermal plant inventories at 34.55 million tonnes on August 4 and total available coal at about 148 million tonnes. It also said July coal production rose 7.51% year on year and rose 18.03%, showing heavy movement of fuel to power stations. That stronger dispatch pattern helps explain why inventories began to fall even before the late-summer squeeze became visible.
National reporting later showed at power plants and in the system were about 54.9 million tonnes at the start of April. That starting point is important because it shows the later squeeze did not begin from scarcity, but from a period of strong stock coverage. The depletion that followed was therefore a large reversal from a high-buffer position.
By mid-March, the government repeated that power plants had about 53.41 million tonnes of coal, enough for nearly 23 days at the then-current . It also said Coal India had planned multiple March to move additional coal into the market. This set the baseline of unusually comfortable buffers before the later drawdown.
The said India’s overall coal stock was about 210 , enough for roughly 88 days of consumption. It said held about 54.05 , or around 24 days of fuel, while pithead stock had risen to 121.39 . Officials framed supply as adequate even as demand was rising.