EAC, Coal - GS questions based on daily current affairs

ANSWER: Facilitate flexibility in utilization of domestic coal

Explanation:

• The Coal Mitra Web Portal has been designed to bring about flexibility in Utilization of Domestic Coal by transferring the reserves to more cost efficient State/Centre owned or Private sector generating stations, leading to lower generation costs and ultimately lesser cost of electricity for the consumers.
• The web portal would be used by the State/Central Gencos to display information about normative fixed and variable charges of electricity for the previous month as well as margin available for additional generation so as to enable the utilities identify stations for transfer of coal. It would host data on Operational and Financial parameters of each coal based station; Quantity and source of supply coal to the power plant; and Distance of Power plant form the Coal mine.

ANSWER: Coal Mitra

Explanation:
Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Shri Piyush Goyal launched ‘Coal Mitra’, a Web portal for flexibility in Utilization of Domestic Coal and released reports on ‘Renewable Energy Integration: Transmission an Enabler’, ‘Green Energy Corridor II’ and ‘Electricity Demand Pattern Analysis’ on 21st Dec.

The Coal Mitra Web Portal has been designed to bring about flexibility in Utilisation of Domestic Coal by transferring the reserves to more cost efficient State/Centre owned or Private sector generating stations.

It will be leading to lower generation costs and ultimately lesser cost of electricity for the consumers.

The web portal would be used by the State/Central Gen Cost to display information about normative fixed and variable charges of electricity for the previous month as well as margin available for additional generation so as to enable the utilities identify stations for transfer of coal.

It would host data on Operational and Financial parameters of each coal based station; Quantity and source of supply coal to the power plant; and Distance of Power plant from the Coal mine.

Reports released include ‘Renewable Energy Integration: Transmission, an Enabler’, ‘Green Energy Corridors - II’ and ‘Electricity Demand Pattern Analysis’.

The first two reports, prepared by PGCIL, cover aspects of comprehensive transmission plan to integrate renewable energy sources into the National Grid and role of Transmission as an Enabler in growing Renewable Energy (RE) penetration scenario.

The last report has been prepared by Power System Operation Corporation Limited (POSOCO).

About Coal Reports

The ‘Renewable Energy Integration: Transmission, an Enabler’ report :

• Covers the study of balancing and stability issues for 15% & 30% RE capacity penetration.
• Also studies the aspects of Balancing Reserve Analysis with Thermal Power Plants, both gas and supercritical coal, Reservoir type Hydro & Pumped Storage Plants

The ‘Green Energy Corridors-II’ (Part-A) report:


• Details about the identified capacity of Solar Parks and transmission infrastructure requirement in various states at Intra-State and Inter-state level.
• Inter-alia covers the financing options available for rationalisation of transmission tariff.
• Covers challenges to be addressed to facilitate smooth integration of solar power parks.

The ‘Electricity Demand Pattern Analysis’ report:


• Covers the analysis of data archived by POSOCO since 2008 with insights towards diurnal, seasonal and yearly demand patterns, decomposition of demand data into seasonal trends at all levels - National, regional and individual State level.

ANSWER: 5

Explanation:
Country’s coal imports have fallen 5 percent in the first two months of 2016-2017 and the number is expected to reach 160.16 MT in the current fiscal.

• Trend of fall in import of coal has continued in 2016-2017 while for the period April-May 2016-2017, coal imports have lowered by 5 percent as against corresponding period of 2015.
• Import of coal is projected for 2016-2017 by Niti Aayog and is around 160.16 MT.
• Increased production by CIL produced around 80 percent of coal in the nation while the import of fossil fuel has fallen from 217.78 MT in 2014-2015 to 199.88 MT in 2015-2016.
• CIL has a blend of strategies for narrowing the domestic demand supply gap to address medium and short term imperatives and technological as well as HR related issues.

ANSWER: 3rd

Explanation:
India is the third largest coal producer in the world after China and the US and will reach production level of 1.5 billion tonnes by FY20, according to a PwC report

• According to the report, India has witnessed a two fold increase in total raw coal consumption in the past ten years
• Coal is mostly consumed for electricity generation in the country to the tune of 64 percent followed by steel at 8 percent and cement at 5 percent.
• Coal production in India has seen a massive increase from FY2010 to FY2016.
• Total domestic output is now estimated at 628 million tonnes
• Of this, 90 percent comes from public sector coal producers while the private sector contributed 10 percent
• Import of coal has also witnessed a rise of 25 percent from 2011 to 2016 as per the report
• In 2015, India imported 212 million tonnes of coal as against 193 a year later
• To attain production level of 1.5 billion tonnes by FY20, coal production must be increased to 1 billion tonnes by FY2020

ANSWER: Both

Explanation:
- Coal reserves in India is one of the largest in the world.
Depending upon its grade from highest to lowest following, The coal found in India can be classified as Anthracite Coal, Bituminous Coal, Lignite (Brown Coal), Peat etc.
- Bituminous Coal: This is the most widely used coal and contains 50 to 85 per cent carbon. It is dense, compact, and brittle and is usually of black color. Most of the bituminous coal is found in Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
- Lignite ( Brown Coal): lignite is a lower grade coal and contains about 35-50 per cent carbon. It is found in Palna of Rajasthan, Neveli to Tamil Nadu, Lakhimpur of Assam and Karewa of Jammu and Kashmir.
- Peat:This is the first stage of transformation of wood into coal and contains less than 35 per cent carbon. It is seldom sufficiently compact to make a good fuel without compressing into bricks. Left to itself, it burns like wood, gives less heat, emits more smoke and leaves a lot of ash after burning.