By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, MAR 08, 2014: AN inter-ministerial panel has deferred a decision on enhancing annual contracted supply of coal to three power plants of NTPC.

"The Standing Linkage Committee (Long Term) was of the view that this issue cannot be decided at this point of time," according to sources.

The three power plants of NTPC, that were under consideration, are situated at Farakka, Kahalgaon and Ramagundum.

The meeting of panel was held to review the status of existing coal linkages/letters of assurance and other related matters.

During a SLC meeting, that held last month, the Power Ministry stated that the annual contractual quantity for the power plants is 16 million tonnes per annum under fuel supply agreement which is sufficient to run the plants, "at only 35-38 percent plant load factor (PLF), forcing the stations to outperform or use premium/imported coal to generate at optimum level," the source said.

Therefore, SLC (LT) was requested to consider annual contractual quantity of these stations in line with the coal linkage quantity, the source added.

Amid continuous delays, the Cabinet Committee on Investment had earlier said timelines for signing fuel supply pacts for power projects of 78,000 MW capacity should be met.

State-owned Coal India has signed 157 fuel supply agreements with power producers for a capacity of 71,145 MW, missing two deadlines.

Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal had said that the remaining supply agreements would be signed once technical glitches are addressed.

Coal India will supply as much as 80 percent of a power producer's requirements, of which 65 percent will be sourced locally and 15 percent will be met through imports.