Its total consumption as fuel in the generation of electricity and heat amounted to 4.5 million tonnes, corresponding to over 114 PJ (petajoules) in energy content, the data says.
The use of hard coal grew particularly in the third quarter. The consumption of hard coal nearly tripled in plants of separate production of electricity, where approximately 1.3 million tonnes of hard coal was used.
At the end of December, stocks of hard coal totalled some 3.3 million tonnes, or 18 per cent less than a year earlier, according to the statistics .