Coal India Holds 76 Million Tonnes While Plants Run Short

Coal India still holds 76 million tonnes at its pitheads, even as 58 Indian thermal plants have fallen below a quarter of the coal they are meant to keep. The Coal Ministry said on September 7 that rail loading to those stations had just jumped 20% in four days.

The fuel is in the country. It is not in the bunkers that have to burn it tonight.

58 Plants Fell Below a Quarter of Their Coal

Central Electricity Authority figures put 58 thermal plants below 25% of their required stock as of September 5, up from 45 at the start of September. Fifty-three of those plants burn domestic coal.

WHERE THE COAL SITS NOW

• At the plants: Stocks slipped from 28.6 million tonnes on September 1 to 26.9 million tonnes on September 5, a 6% drop in five days, and from 49% of the CEA norm to 46%.
• At the mines: Coal India, the world’s largest coal miner, still holds a 76 million tonne cushion at its pitheads, plus 46 million tonnes of ready-to-mine coal.
• On the rails: Loading to the power sector rose from 370 rakes on September 3 to 444 rakes on September 6.
• Days of cover: As of September 2 the fleet held 28.2 million tonnes, about nine days at an 85% plant load factor, against a 19-day norm.

That September 2 snapshot covered plants with about 224 GW of capacity, against a prescribed stock of 58.7 million tonnes. Of the 50 stations then tagged critical, 45 run on domestic coal, four on imports and one on washery rejects.

Coal still supplies roughly two-thirds of India’s electricity, so a thin bunker at a large station shows up quickly in the night peak. An official at NTPC, the country’s largest thermal generator, said in late August that the uneven monsoon had driven air-conditioning load while “coal supplies are running hand-to-mouth.”

The Surplus Is at the Pitheads

The Coal Ministry’s own numbers make the bind plain. Average daily output at Coal India mines rose from 1.36 million tonnes in the first three rain-hit days of September to 1.7 million tonnes on September 4 and 1.83 million tonnes on September 6, a 35% lift once the water receded. Dispatch to the power sector moved from about 1.35 million tonnes a day to 1.5 million tonnes on September 4 and 1.7 million tonnes on September 6.

Overburden removal more than doubled, from 2.5 million cubic metres a day in those first three days to 5.1 million cubic metres on September 6, a sign that pits in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh were being pumped and roads rebuilt. Captive mines, which feed their own plants, had the same wet-seam problem and the same slow recovery.

That is not a missing-coal story. In August, Coal India already sent 60.60 million tonnes to all buyers, 5.5% more than a year earlier, including 48.46 million tonnes to power stations, up 4.5%. April to August supplies reached 322.90 million tonnes, 6.7% above 302.60 million tonnes a year earlier, a pace the ministry’s monthly production and despatch series has been tracking through the rains.

The lag is movement. CEA plant notes in late August flagged rake shortages, slow unloading and coal sitting at ports or in transit. Plants that cannot turn a hopper train around lose the next one. That is why a miner can hold 76 million tonnes beside the seam and a station 800 kilometres away can still be inside the 25% band.

Rake Loading Rose by 74 Trains in Four Days

The ministry’s reply has been to push unit trains, not to dig a new mine. Loading to the power sector rose every day from September 3, adding 74 rakes, or 20%, by September 6. The single-day jump that Sunday was 31 rakes. Coal India sidings accounted for 305 of the 444, 26 more than the day before. Singareni Collieries and captive operators filled the rest.

RAKE LOADING TO POWER PLANTS

Mahanadi Coalfields, which sits in the wettest of the eastern coalfields, led the Sunday rebound. The ministry said the rise “reflects the sustained efforts of Coal India Limited (CIL), its subsidiaries, SCCL and captive mine operators to ramp up coal supply to the power sector.”

WHO ADDED RAKES ON SEPTEMBER 6

• Mahanadi Coalfields: 111 rakes, up 12, the largest single-day gain.
• Captive blocks: 72 rakes, up 6.
• Bharat Coking Coal: 25 rakes, up 8.
• Northern Coalfields: 35 rakes, up 3.
• Private washeries and goods sheds: 42 rakes, up 3.
• Central and South Eastern Coalfields: 36 and 46 rakes, up 2 and 1.
• Eastern and Western Coalfields: 23 and 29 rakes, unchanged.

An inter-ministerial group met on September 4 to go through the same list plant by plant. Corrective supply, in the ministry’s phrase, was already “in place to further ease the position at these plants.” Dry spells, it added, should let loading rise further.

Why Critical Does Not Mean Empty Bunkers

CEA’s September rule is already the loosest of the year: 12 days of stock at pithead plants and 20 days at plants that take coal by rail, both calculated at an 85% load factor. The bar rises to 17 and 26 days in February and March. A station is tagged critical when it holds less than 25% of whichever of those figures applies to it.

The daily burn assumed in the norm is 3.1 million tonnes. Officials said actual burn is closer to 2.4 million tonnes, which is why a plant inside the red band can still have several nights of running room. A senior coal ministry official said the tag “is a routine monitoring parameter under norms laid down by CEA. It simply means closer tracking and priority action. These plants are not running out of supply.”

A plant falling below the applicable norm is not necessarily about to run out of coal. The headline count should be considered alongside the generating capacity affected, actual plant-level stocks, daily coal receipts against consumption, and any generation loss due to coal shortage.

Vikas Gaba, partner, KPMG in India

Gaba also said the elevated count, on its own, does not prove a national shortage, and that it still needs plant-level watching. The Power Ministry had already asked some stations in late August to delay planned maintenance until receipts looked steadier.

August Already Matched a Four-Year Low

The squeeze did not start in September. Domestic-coal plants held 28.36 million tonnes on August 24, enough for 9.7 days against a 19.4-day norm, the thinnest same-date stock in four years and only a shade above 28.11 million tonnes on August 24, 2022.

COAL AT PLANTS ON AUGUST 24

Commodity consultancy BigMint put the August drawdown at 19% from end-July, to 30.95 million tonnes, after receipts lagged burns. Only weeks earlier the ministry had been advertising a fat buffer: as of August 4 it reported 34.55 million tonnes sitting at plants, about 113 million tonnes at pitheads and in transit, and roughly 148 million tonnes in the system, enough for about 62 days of power-sector use.

July’s paperwork still looked strong. Production was 69.75 million tonnes, up 7.51% from 64.88 million tonnes a year earlier. Despatch was 86.85 million tonnes, up 18.03%. Receipts at plants were 68.83 million tonnes, up 13.41%. Then the eastern pits flooded, night cooling stayed high, and the 62-day cushion shrank to a nine-day one.

Installed coal plant is not a small slice of the grid. CEA’s end-July note lists 224,158 MW of coal-fired capacity out of 551,996 MW in the country, or 40.61% of the mix, even before counting what those units actually generate after sunset. Peak demand had already printed 270.82 GW on May 21.

2021 Left Plants With Four Days of Coal

The last time this argument emptied rooms in Delhi, the numbers were much worse. Gaba noted that plant stocks fell from about 29 million tonnes in June 2021 to 8.1 million tonnes in September that year. They later rebuilt to a record 58.25 million tonnes in June 2025, about 25 days of burn. He said this year’s stress should not be treated as 2021 unless stocks, CEA cover, receipts versus burn, and coal-related generation loss are lined up on the same basis.

HOW THE BUNKERS FILLED AND EMPTIED

1. August 1, 2021: Plant stocks stand at 23.97 million tonnes, about 13 days of cover.
2. October 1, 2021: Stocks fall to 8.1 million tonnes, about four days. Seventy-two of 135 monitored plants hold less than three days. About 6,960 MW is off for want of coal.
3. October 11, 2021: Day-ahead power on the India Energy Exchange hits Rs 16.4 a unit as states bid for replacement electricity.
4. June 2025: Plant stocks reach 58.25 million tonnes, about 25 days of cover, the high-water mark after four years of restocking.
5. August 24, 2026: Domestic-coal plants are back to 28.36 million tonnes and 9.7 days, a four-year low for that date.
6. September 5, 2026: Fifty-eight plants sit below 25% of the CEA norm, with 26.9 million tonnes left in the bunkers and 76 million tonnes still at Coal India’s pitheads.

The 2021 crunch mixed a wet monsoon, a post-lockdown demand spike and a collapse in imports when seaborne prices jumped. This year’s version has the rain and the night load, and it still has the rake queue. It does not have 8.1 million tonnes and a four-day national cover.

Road Haulage and the October Import Watch

Because the coal is already at the mines, Coal India has told plants with fuel-supply agreements they can lift extra tonnes above their annual contracted quantity by road, on top of the rail programme. That is a wet-season workaround, not a new mining plan, and it only works for stations close enough to a pit or a siding that trucks can close the gap.

The ministry said dry weather should let loading keep rising. CEA’s own calendar also helps: the required stock at pithead and non-pithead plants is at its lowest in September and climbs into winter, so the same bunker looks worse on paper as the year goes on if receipts do not catch burn.

Trade desks that live on seaborne prices are already looking past the rakes. Kpler, the cargo tracker, said on September 1 that India’s coal-fired output rose to 114 TWh in August, nearly 14% above a year earlier, with power-sector consumption near 77 million tonnes, and that plant stocks near 27 million tonnes plus a weak hydro year could pull in more imported coal from October.

India’s coal imports set to rise

India is likely to step up thermal coal imports from October 2026 as strong power demand and weaker domestic production draw down utility inventories. #Coal generation rose to 114 TWh in August, nearly 14% above last year, while power sector… pic.twitter.com/Ms1X2shPd5

— Kpler (@Kpler) September 1, 2026

That import call sits on top of a grid that is still building coal units. Ember, the energy think tank, counted about 35 GW of new coal plants under construction as of August 2025, mostly supercritical and ultra-supercritical blocks. CEA’s July 2026 log already shows units such as Patratu and Ghatampur coming online this year. More plants mean more bunkers that have to be filled every monsoon, by the same rakes, out of the same eastern fields.

For now the test is narrower. Sunday’s 444 rakes have to keep printing, the extra road tonnes have to show up at the 58 critical gates, and the 76 million tonnes at the pitheads have to move before the September norm becomes the tighter winter one.