Coal stock for 30 Indian thermal power plants enough for just four days

Coal stocks at India’s thermal power plants are critically low on the eve of Diwali, and will not improve unless coal supplies are stepped up significantly, a senior power ministry official said. However, coal-sector authorities said dispatches to power plants had increased.

Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal has directed coal companies to give top priority to power plants compared to other customers, but power stations are running with very thin stocks and supplies are not enough to build stocks to a comfortable level.

“The critical stock with power projects is a matter of great concern. The coal supply is sufficient for hand-to-mouth existence. There is no coal on railway sidings. Stock would not improve unless we get at least 30-40 additional rakes everyday. The silver lining, however, is that we are receiving 100 per cent coal supply now and projects are operating at full capacities,” a senior power ministry official said.

Many plants, including units run by leading energy companies such as NTPC, Reliance Power, Sterlite and Damodar Valley Corp had coal stocks for less than seven days, a condition that the Central Electricity Authority says is “critical”.

Latest CEA data shows that number power projects with critically low stocks of coal increased to 48 on Monday from 44 two weeks ago. Thirty plants had “supercritical” stock that would last less than four days. There are 89 coal based electricity generation stations in India that have a capacity of 86,000 mw.

NTPC’s Singrauli, Mejia, Vindyachal and Damodar Valley’s Kodarma projects and few other projects with about 9,000-mw had no coal stock as against a normative requirement of 15-20 days. On an average coal plants have stocks for barely seven days. The power ministry official said coal stocks would continue to deplete unless about 190 rakes are dispatched to power sector alone. The coal ministry said a total 147 rakes were dispatched to power projects on Monday. In addition seven rakes and another 1,77,000 tonnes of coal was dispatched through exclusive transportation ties ups.

A coal ministry statement said a total of 181 coal rakes were dispatched to all consumers including power plants on Monday. “The coal companies have been advised to ensure priority movement of coal to the power stations of the country and their coal availability is improving,” a coal ministry statement said.

The overall average rail loading from Coal India Ltd was 156 rakes per day, of which 127 were dispatched to power stations. During the last three days, 146 rakes have been dispatched to the power stations in northern India. Heavy floods, strikes at mines and the Telangana agitation has crippled mining and loading operations in several states had depleted coal stock at power plants in the beginning of this month.