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By John Kemp

LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - India’s coal production and generation shattered records in March as miners and power producers made a Herculean effort to avoid a repetition of the fuel shortages and blackouts that hit the country two years ago.

Domestic coal production soared to an unprecedented 117 million tonnes in March 2024 up from 108 million in March 2023 and 96 million in March 2022, according to data from the Ministry of Coal.

Mining firms sent almost 74 million tonnes to generators, up from 68 million in the same month last year and 65 million two years ago. (“Monthly statistics at a glance”, Ministry of Coal, April 2024)

The mines despatched an average of 298 coal trains to generators each day, up from 271 in 2023 and 269 in 2022, as the rail network was instructed to prioritise fuel movements.

As a result, coal-fired generators had enough fuel to boost their output to a record 113 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) up from 103 billion kWh in the same month last year and two years ago.

Coal accounted for almost 81% of generation from all sources last month from 79% in March 2022, when fuel shortages left many power plants idle and resulted in blackouts.

Chartbook: India electricity generation

Coal-burning plants helped the transmission system serve a record load of 139 billion kWh in March 2024, up from less than 128 billion kWh in 2023 and 130 billion kWh in 2022.

Coal supplied almost all the increase in load as record amounts of solar were partially offset by lower hydro as a result of low reservoir levels.

The transmission system was able to serve peak load of 222 million kilowatts up from 199 million during the heatwave two years ago without becoming dangerously stretched.

Despite record coal generation, fuel supplies remain comfortable as a result of unprecedented production and distribution.

Generators still had 48 million tonnes of coal in storage on April 28 up from 36 million tonnes a year earlier and 22 million in 2022.

Inventories were enough to satisfy the minimum requirement for more than 16 days, up from 12 days a year ago and just eight days at the end of April 2022.

With plentiful coal generation available, the transmission network has been much more stable, with grid frequency remaining close to its target of 50 cycles per second (Hertz).

Grid frequency reflects the balance between generation and load; sustained periods of under-frequency are a sign the network cannot call on enough generation to satisfy demand.

But frequency fell below the minimum acceptable level of 49.9 Hertz, just 6% of the time in March 2024 compared with 9% in March last year and almost 15% in March 2022.