By Saurabh Chaturvedi

April 10, 2024 - Indian state-controlled utility NTPC aims to raise coal production from its captive blocks by around 16pc during the April 2024-March 2025 financial year from a year earlier.

This is to partly meet its coal requirement to boost generation and meet the country's growing power demand.

The goal is to produce 40mn t in the 2024-25 fiscal year from coal blocks allocated by the federal government for its power plants, up from 34.38mn t a year earlier, NTPC said in a statement. The growth in production would help to meet 15pc of NTPC's projected fuel requirement, it added.

The plan to boost output from the so-called captive coal blocks is part of efforts to increase domestic coal output and trim imports. The growth in production would be supported by the implementation of a range of strategies and technologies that would include better mine planning and equipment automation, among others, NTPC said.

NTPC, along with its joint ventures, imported about 16.5mn t of coal in 2022-23 and received at least 10.5mn t of seaborne coal in 2023-24. The growth in captive production is also key to India's plans to increase local production and meet the growing requirement of the power sector. India imported 14.69mn t of thermal coal in February, up from 10.28mn t a year earlier, according to data from shipbroker Interocean.

Power Generation

NTPC, which meets a quarter of India's power demand, generated 422TWh of electricity in 2023-24, up by about 6pc from the previous fiscal year.

The utility plans to add 5GW of new generation capacity in the current financial year, after adding about 3.9GW in 2023-24. Its total generation capacity is close to 76GW at present.

As much as 60pc of the proposed capacity for 2024-25 would comprise renewable energy, while new thermal power capacity would account for the remainder, NTPC said. The utility has an operational renewable power capacity of 3.5GW.

NTPC is looking to expand its non-fossil fuel-based capacity to 45-50pc of the company's generation portfolio by 2032, with a planned renewable energy capacity of 60GW out of the targeted 130GW total capacity. It has renewable power projects totalling more than 20GW under construction.