HYDERABAD: Citing rising power demand and the need to ensure adequate supplies to thermal power plants with fuel supply agreements, Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) chairman and managing director Buddhaprakash Jyoti on Friday directed officials to increase the company’s daily coal production and dispatch to 1.9 lakh tonnes.
During a review meeting with the SCCL directors and general managers of all mining areas, held at the Singareni Bhavan in Hyderabad, he said that electricity consumption had increased significantly across the country, prompting the Prime Minister’s Office, Union Coal Ministry and State Energy Department to review coal supplies to thermal power plants and set targets.
“Government-owned coal companies have a responsibility to ensure adequate fuel availability in the interest of the country’s energy security,” he said.
Officials informed the meeting that SCCL had dispatched 253 lakh tonnes of coal during the first five months of the current financial year, up to August 31, with more than 90 per cent of the supplies going to thermal power plants. The CMD directed the general managers to prepare plans to achieve their assigned targets and stressed the need to exceed daily production and dispatch targets.
Buddhaprakash said that coal from the Naini coal mine in Odisha had been supplied to the Singareni thermal power plant through the first railway rake. Another rake was recently dispatched to the Yadadri Thermal Power Station at Damaracherla following directions from the state government.
Going forward, priority would be given to supplying coal from the Naini block to state thermal power plants to meet Telangana’s power requirements, he said.
