In response to the recommendation made by the Standing Linkage Committee (Long Term) for Power earlier this year that the Ministry of Coal formulate a policy for supply of coal and coal rejects to ‘washery reject’ based power plants, the Inter-Ministerial Committee constituted for the purpose has asked the Ministry of Power and Central Electricity Authority to prepare a report on the issue.
In its first meeting held on December 6, 2013, under the chairmanship of Additional Secretary (Coal), the IMC constituted for formulation of a policy on allocation of coal and coal rejects to ‘washery reject’ based power plants while assigning the task of preparing the report said the Ministry of Power and CEA would indicate technical details such as the required Gross Calorific Value of washery rejects to be consumed by the power plants as well as that of run-of-mine coal. The report would also suggest the normative quantities required by such units keeping in view the availability of washery rejects from Coal India Ltd sources including their heat value.
The Standing Linkage Committee (Long Term) for Power considers applications for setting up power projects and recommends grant of long term coal linkage. At present, no fresh linkages are being granted to any sector owing to negative coal balance reported by various subsidiary companies of CIL. The Ministry of Power in its earlier guidelines had indicated the proportion of coal and coal rejects in case of ‘washery reject’ based power plants as 22:78.
As of now, no policy exists for providing long term washery reject linkages. The CIL washeries generate about 1.4 MT rejects. These are disposed of through e-auction. Currently, the coal major is in the process of setting up new washeries. These are expected to become operational in about three years time following which there would be an increase in the generation of rejects.
As far as private washeries commissioned by consumers of CIL are concerned, there is no data available with regard to the quantity of rejects. It is estimated though that rejects generated by private washeries would be around 6.4 MT.
The boilers of ‘washery reject’ based power plants require a total GCV of about 2,800 which can be met by blending rejects with ROM coal.
The IMC for formulation of policy on allocation of coal and coal rejects to ‘washery reject’ based power plants was constituted in June this year. It consists of representatives from the Ministry of Power, Ministry of Environment and Forests, CIL, Planning Commission, Coal Controller Organisation, in addition to senior officials from the Ministry of Coal. Under the terms of reference that have been set, the Committee will assess the actual coal demand of ‘washery reject’ based power plants, frame guidelines for long term coal linkages to such plants keeping in view the overall availability position, assess actual rejects generated by CIL washeries and put in place guidelines for supply of rejects on long term basis from the washeries.
