Calcutta: Coal India has urged thermal power plants not to cut their offtake during the rainy season. Coal mining and inventory management are a key challenge during the monsoon months for both consumers as well as miners as moisture affects quality and heavy rain can disrupt production.

According to the public sector miner, thermal power producers, the largest consumers of coal, should use this period as an opportunity to build stocks and meet demand when required unlike previous instances of liquidating their own inventory as demand increased.

"Power stations started facing crisis when they chose to restrict intake of coal because of subdued power generation during 2016-17. They subsequently stepped up consumption from the inventory to cope with the spurt in thermal power generation in 2017-18. The situation could have been averted had they realised the inherent logistics constraints of rushing coal to the power plants widely dispersed across the country at short notice and maintained safe stocks according to the norms prescribed by Central Electricity Authority," a CIL official said.

According to CEA estimates, the current coal stock is estimated at 10 days against a normative requirement of 22 days. Coal India has already stepped up coal supply to power plants this year.