Coal India Signs Supply Pacts with NTPC for 16 Plants

Coal India Ltd (CIL) has signed fuel supply pacts with NTPC’s 16 power plants and joint ventures, while 11 more agreements with the power major and its JVs are being processed.

“CIL has signed 82 FSAs of 34,793 MW capacities. These include 11 FSAs with NTPC and 5 FSAs with its joint ventures. Besides this, FSAs in 6 cases of 4,480MW capacity with NTPC and 5 cases of joint ventures of NTPC are under process of signing,” an official statement said today.

The Coal Ministry said CIL has been directed to sign FSAs for about 78,000 MW within four weeks after the power producers fulfil the requisite conditions. A Presidential Directive has been issued by the ministry in this regard.

“Ministry of Coal has directed CIL to sign FSAs for about 78,000 MW to ensure committed supply of coal to power sector,” the statement said.

The ministry further said that some more FSAs are likely to be signed soon as five cases of State sector and 11 cases of private sectors have already achieved the requisite milestones for conversion of their LOAs (Letter of Assurances) to FSAs.

“Seven cases are awaiting declaration of commercial operation date by Central Electricity Authority while in five cases milestones are under verification before finalisation of FSAs,” the ministry said.

Earlier, CIL was directed to sign FSAs for 60,678 MW capacity which was the projected requirement for 131 power plants commissioned or to be commissioned by March, 2015.

NTPC had refused to enter into FSAs with CIL over quality issues of the dry-fuel supplied to it and had stopped payment to Coal India subsidiary, Eastern Coalfields Ltd.

Retorting to the step, the world’s largest coal miner had temporarily stopped supply of fuel to NTPC. The issue was resolved following government intervention.