Govt Invokes Emergency Law To Force Coal-running Power Plants To Maximise Output

India has invoked an emergency law to force power plants running on imported coal to maximise output, anticipating a record surge in power usage this summer, news agency Reuters reported on Monday.

Many power plants use imported coal and are yet to operate at full capacity because they have found it difficult to compete with power generated from domestic coal.

The union power ministry sent a notice to all importing coal power plants that it expects them to operate at full capacity and sell power to buyers on exchanges.

India’s capacity of imported coal plants stands at 17 gigawatts.

The directive, however, will come into effect from 16 March to give plants the time to import coal ahead of the expected surge in consumption. It would remain valid till 15 June.

The notice added that a panel appointed by the government will fix the variable tariff of these plants and will use the index with the lowest cost of imported coal for calculating the variable tariff for every plant.

The ministry expects a peak demand of 229 gigawatts in April, and to address that, India would need to operate a thermal capacity of 193 gigawatts that month, the notice said.