MINISTRY OF COAL

6.1. SHAKTI (SCHEME FOR HARNESSING AND ALLOCATING KOYALA TRANSPARENTLY IN INDIA)

• To make coal available to all the Thermal Power Plants of the country in a transparent and objective manner and at the same time ensure that the benefits of linkage coal are transferred to the end consumers.
• Power companies (assured coal supply)
• Consumers (reduced cost of power)
• Indigenous Coal Sector (reduction in Imported coal)
• Banking Sector (reduced NPAs)
• SHAKTI is basically a Coal Linkage Policy that would provide coal linkages (or supplies) to power plants which lacks fuel supply agreements (FSAs) through coal auctions.

o It also seeks to achieve Coal linkage rationalization which means buying coal from mines which are closer to the power plant or any practice that leads to more economic gains.

• Coal linkages would be allocated to state-owned power distribution companies (Discoms). These, in turn, would assign these linkages to thermal power plants.
• For the use of coal in state/ central generating plants, the deciding criteria shall be plant efficiency, coal transportation cost, transmission charges and the overall cost of power.
• Private-owned independent power plants (IPPs) have to bid for the coal linkage. The basis of bidding would be the location of source of coal, quantity of coal, amount of power and delivery point of power they generate.
• Earlier, power purchase agreements (PPAs) were a pre-requisite for getting coal linkage. But the government has now relaxed the norms under SHAKTI as per the recommendations of P K Sinha committee.
• Now, Power plants not having PPAs will start getting coal linkages under auctions from Coal India Ltd and Singareni Collieries Company Ltd, which would help reduce stress in the sector.

• The Ministry of Coal and Coal India Limited (CIL) developed UTTAM app which aims to provide an App for all citizens and coal consumers to monitor the process of Third Party Sampling of coal across Coal India Limited (CIL) subsidiaries.
• It has interactive map based view to provide holistic coverage of coal quality across subsidiaries on quality parameters such as declared Gross Calorific Value (GCV), analysed GCV and coverage parameters such as location and quantity sampled.

• It is a web-based GIS application through which location of sites for unauthorised mining can be detected.
• The basic platform used in the system is of Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology’s (MeiTY) map which provides village level information.

• It is a tool for reporting any activity taking place related to illegal coal mining like rat hole mining, pilferage etc.
• One can upload geo-tagged photographs of the incident along with textual information directly to the system.
• The identity of the complainant shall not be revealed.

• Coal Ministry has decided to establish SDC for promoting sustainable coal mining and address environmental concerns during the closure of mines. It will adopt a systemic approach, starting from collection & analysis of data, planning, adoption of best practices etc.
• SDC will advise, mentor, plan and monitor mitigation measures taken by coal companies for maximising utilisation of available resources in a sustainable way. It will also formulate the future policy framework for environmental mitigation measures, including the Mine closure Fund.
• It will act as nodal point at Ministry of Coal level in this matter.

• The Portal aims at bringing better coordination for coal supplies among all stakeholders - Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal, Coal India, Railways and power utilities to ensure adequate availability and optimum utilization of coal at thermal power plants.
• The Portal is developed by NTPC and sources data from different stakeholders such as Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) and coal companies.
• The Portal is designed to help in mapping and monitoring entire coal supply chain and tracking movement of coal from mines to power plants

• The Portal will make available four reports including Daily Power Plant Status, Periodic Power Plant Status, Plant Exception Report and Coal Dispatch Report.

Shruti