India’s largest power company has warned that while it is looking at alternative fuel sources for future electricity generation, the country is compelled to rely on coal for at least the next 3 decades as the major energy source while it struggles to meet demand.

Mr JK Nigoyi of TATA Power Company told the Coaltrans conference in Bali that “Coal is indeed the fuel of choice but it is also a fuel of compulsion. No coal source will be deemed to be too distant and no logistics too difficult to overcome. This is a long term prognosis for coal imports.”

India imported 40 million tonne of thermal coal predominantly from Australia, South Africa and Indonesia in 2009. It is forecast to import 72 million tonne in 2011 and 130 million tonne in 2017. The current deficit between electricity demand and supply in India as at February 2010 was 9.9%.

Mr Nigoyi said that “This is expected to continue for the next eight to 10 years. It is inevitable that coal has to be imported into India in ever-increasing quantities in the future.”

(Sourced from www.coalportal.com)