The coal consumption has increased from 240.4 Million Tonne in 2001-02 to 417.6 Million Tonnes in 2011-12 for coal based power generation.
During the year 2012-13 (upto Jan, 2013), the details of mode wise generation and percentage breakup as being monitored in Central Electricity Authority is given below:
| Source | Generation in Billion Units (BU) | Percentage (%) |
| Thermal | ||
| Coal | 544.5 | 71.4 |
| Lignite | 26.3 | 3.5 |
| Gas/Liquid Fuel | 58.7 | 7.7 |
| Diesel | 1.9 | 0.2 |
| Total Thermal | 631.4 | 82.8 |
| Hydro | 99.1 | 13.0 |
| Nuclear | 27.5 | 3.6 |
| Bhutan | 4.7 | 0.6 |
| Total | 762.7 | 100 |
The total Geological Reserves as on 1.4.2012 are 293.49 billion tonnes.
Government has proposed to increase the coal production in the next five years to meet the needs for power generation in the country. As per the 12th Five Year Plan the coal production is envisaged to increase to 795 million tonnes is 2016-17 the terminal year of the 12th Five Year Plan from the actual coal production of about 540 million tonnesachieved in 2011-12 the terminal year of the 11th Plan. This implies a growth in coal production of 8% Compounded Average Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) during the 12th Plan period compared to the actual growth of 4.6 (CAGR) in the 11th Plan.
The power requirement from coal based Power Plants is estimated around 967 Billion Units (BU).
This information was given by the Minister of State for Coal Shri Pratik PrakashBapu Patil in a written reply in LokSabha today