Power plants to be soon allowed to swap coal supplies: Piyush Goyal

5 Dariya News

New Delhi 22-Apr-2015

The government is working on a policy to allow power generating companies to swap fuel linkages so as to clear bottlenecks in coal supply, Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday."We are looking at soon coming out with a policy where state generation firms, central PSUs and companies in the private sector, all will be given the approval to soon to swap coal inter se their various plants," Goyal told reporters on the sidelines of the "MindMine" conference here.The proposed policy is towards running thermal power plants with more efficiency, reduce pollution and freight, the minister said.He said such a move will benefit "particularly those (projects) at the pithead where it is easier to transmit coal and reduce the PLF (plant load factor) of the inefficient plants".

"There is a challenge that I am trying to sort out which is that different plants have contracted sales to different states. When we increase production in one plant and bring it down in another, we have to ensure the transmission capabilities to disseminate that power," Goyal said."We are working on that but I am fairly confident we will resolve that issue," he added.

He further said if two different companies want to swap coal supplies they will have to get permission so as to ensure that there is no misuse and no windfall gains or profiteering is involved.