Coal in India: Adjusting to transition

Abstract

Coal is the source of half of commercial primary energy in India. However, non-commercial biomass is still an important energy source, making up roughly one-quarter of total primary energy. The power sector uses the majority of India’s coal (Figure 1) and coal dominates supply in the sector, in both capacity and generation terms (Figure 2 and Figure 3). India primarily uses domestic coal, but also imports roughly 200 million tons of coal annually, including coking coal used in steel plants. Power plants are designed to operate on coal of a specific quality—small deviations may lower efficiency while larger differences may not allow operations. Many plants in coastal areas far from coal mines are designed to run on imported coal. Imports are also blended with domestic coal to improve the average heat value—Indian coal generally has a high ash content and low heat value.