Times Of India reported that in view of shortage of coal in the country, union ministry of power has issued a circular that units having generation capacity below 200MW will not get coal linkage from Coal India Limited subsidiaries and Singareni Coalfields Limited. However, this is not applicable to units that use a mix of coal and biomass as fuel.

The cap of 200MW is applicable to units of central government undertakings, state government generation companies as well as private power companies.

A Mahagenco officer said that even though India had adequate coal reserves, due to problems in acquiring land and getting environmental clearance, production had got delayed in many coal blocks by four to five years. He said that "This has completely disturbed the planning. The controversy over coal block allocation may lead to further delays."

The official further said that most power companies, whether state-run or private, were going in for big units. He added that "Many companies are installing 660MW units. Others are going in for 500MW or 250MW units. Mahagenco is not installing any unit below 250MW capacity, so we will not be affected."

The smaller units are being installed by medium-sized private companies. He said that "Many of them have been allocated captive coal blocks. However, in case they do not have blocks, they will have to buy coal through e auction, which is quite costly.”

If the primary fuel of a unit is biomass, then 15% coal linkage will be provided for such units having capacity of 10MW and above. For units generating power on coal washery rejects, with a ratio of coal to reject of 22 to 78, linkage will be provided to units of 50MW and above. A cogeneration based unit should have capacity of 10MW and above for getting a coal linkage.

Source - Press Trust of India

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