World Energy Resources | 2016

Production, million tonnes
WORLD ENERGY COUNCIL | COAL
Domestic coal production has been inadequate to meet the total demand of coal in the
country. The production has been slow mainly in the last five years starting from 2009 in
comparison to previous years (Figure 6). In addition, this period also experienced increased
coal based generation capacity in the country, which demanded large volume imports of
coal from other countries to meet the shortfall in domestic coal production, compensation
for India’s low quality, high ash coal and the total coal demand.
FIGURE 6: COAL PRODUCTION IN INDIA
700
600
500
400
389
LIGNITE
COAL
TOTAL Solid Fuel
462
437
413
491
525
566 571
583
604 610
300
200
100
0
2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14
Source: Ministry of Coal, India
While the importance of coal in meeting the primary energy requirement has been
increasing incessantly, the production of coal has not kept pace with the demand,
particularly in recent years. The gap between domestic coal production and consumption is
being met almost entirely through imports. The net import of coal increased by 193% from
2008 to 2013 (Figure 7).
The working group on coal in its report for the 12 th five-year plan has estimated that the
total demand in the country in the year 2016-2017 will be 980.50 million tonnes and the
domestic coal availability has been projected at 715 million tonnes in the ‘business as
usual’ scenario and 795 million tonnes in the ‘optimistic scenario’ 20 .
20
Planning Commission of India, 12 th Working Group Report on Coal
20