October 22: In the last few months, India has witnessed a major rise in its power demand. To meet the increasing demand and explore the unexplored mines for maximum utility, private players are playing a key role. Adani Group in Chhattisgarh, Pinnacle Exploration in Jharkhand are majorly contributing to upscale the power production.

 As per the data from the power ministry, India has emerged third largest electricity producer and consumer worldwide. In the month of May, the country witnessed a rise of 25 per cent to 26.24 billion units (BU) as compared to the same period in the last year.

With this surge in India’s instantaneous power demand, several new coal mining projects are undertaken for bolstering power generation. Private enterprises like Adani GroupHYPERLINK "https://m.economictimes.com/industry/indl-goods/svs/metals-mining/adani-group-bags-two-commercial-coal-mines-on-day-1-of-tranche-2-auctions/articleshow/84983566.cms" mining HYPERLINK "https://m.economictimes.com/industry/indl-goods/svs/metals-mining/adani-group-bags-two-commercial-coal-mines-on-day-1-of-tranche-2-auctions/articleshow/84983566.cms"Chhattisgarh and Pinnacle Exploration in Jharkhand are operating a number of coal projects across these coal enriched states. Recently in Chhattisgarh, Adani Group’s subsidiary CG Natural Resources won Khargaon coal mine against the highest bid of 6% revenue sharing. Apart from it, Jhigador mine has also been awarded to Adani Group Chhattisgarh with geological reserves of 250 million tonnes. With the commencement of auction for the second tranche of commercial coal mines since 25th March, private players have upscaled the coal production in India.

 As coal accounts for over 2/3rd of India’s HYPERLINK "https://www.mid-day.com/lifestyle/infotainment/article/sustainable-value-creation-via-reliant-coal-projects-by-adani-group-chhattisgarh-23191641"energy mix and around 60 per cent of its electricity mix, private entities are performing well to meet the country’s power demand.  Pinnacle Exploration, Vedanta and other leading private entities have outmanoeuvred state-owned companies like Coal India (CIL).

 Coming to mines in Jharkhand, potential bidders included Hiltop Hirise Pvt Ltd and Dhansar Engineering Co., who have partially explored a mine with 84.03 million tonnes of geological reserves.

 The coal ministry announced the auction of nineteen mines in the second tranche of commercial coal mining auction. Out of them, ten are thoroughly explored, and nine are partially explored. 

 The installed capacity for India’s national electric grid was 383.37 GW till May 31, 2021. In future, bridging the demand and supply gap will be paramount to India's power policy. We have already embarked on the journey to turn carbon neutral and implementation of renewable sources of energy. However, coal still plays a pivotal role to fulfil the growing power demand, and commercial coal auctions are boosting productivity in the sector.