Magazine Article - Economic and Political Weekly

Making the Best Use of India's Coal Resources

Introduction

The importance of coal for the future of the Indian power sector
cannot be overstated. Yet, the extractable coal reserves in the
country are estimated to last only 50 to 60 years under current
techno-economic conditions. Given that current power plants are
operating at efficiencies far from optimum, there is an enormous
scope for improvement. Thus, a national efficiency mission,
modelled after the existing renovation and modernisation
programme, must be directed towards raising power-plant
efficiencies across the country, thereby ensuring better use of this
finite resource. In addition, a focused vision must be developed to
strategically deploy cleaner and more efficient coal technologies.