NEW DELHI, Sept 15: Private power companies have agreed to return coal mined from captive blocks to Coal India Ltd if the end-use plant is delayed, according to Association of Power Producers (APP).
They have also decided to buy that fuel later, even at higher prices, from the state-run firm as per requirements.
“If EUP (end-use plant) is not ready but mining (from the allotted mines) is ready, we cannot stop it as the country needs coal, so the company can give that coal back to Coal India,” said Ashok Khurana, Director General of Association of Power Producers, a 20-member body representing firms like Reliance Power, Tata Power, Lanco and GMR etc.
Companies are prepared take a hit if the price of coal goes up. “In case the price of the fuel goes up, the companies have said that they are ready to take a hit,” Khurana said.
“Some of the companies have written to the government seeking permission to use the fuel from the coal mines allotted to their X plant for their Y plant as the former is getting delayed for commissioning due to various reasons,” he added.
Recently, Tata Power, country’s largest private power producer, has sought government approval for using surplus coal from the Mandakini coal mine to its Maithon thermal power project (Jharkhand) as the project faces coal shortage and the end-use plant for the Mandakini mine is yet to come up.
Meanwhile, APP has also said that the proposed 4,000 MW ultra mega power project at Odisha is likely to receive a lukewarm response as certain regulatory clearances and lack of clarity on certain policies may stop the companies from submitting bids for those projects.
An UMPP is normally of 4,000 MW capacity and entails an investment of about Rs 20,000 crore.
So far, four UMPPs have been allotted of which three — Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Tilaiyia (Jharkhand) and Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) — have been bagged by Reliance Power.
Tata Power has already commissioned country’s first UMPP at Mundra in Gujarat. (PTI)
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