Thermal stations got only 30 mt coal against the requirement of 37.9 mt.
An ongoing unrest in Telangana has “severely hampered” the production of coal in that region of Andhra Pradesh, slackening its availability as a raw material for power generation, thereby, leading to a decline in its quantum in two southern states besides Maharashtra and several parts of western, middle and eastern India, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).
The statutory body, in its latest report released late last week, says the despatch by Coal India Limited to the power utilities in the current financial year (up to October) was approximately 89 per cent of the target, thus showing a sliding profile. This, when what was targeted was a growth of around 13 per cent.
The CEA, in its report released on November 17 on electricity generation, said the Telangana crisis led to further deterioration in the coal availability to power stations in September and October. The violence-ridden socio-economic and political issue hampered the production in Singareni Collieries Company Limited mines based in Khammam district. This has “affected the coal supplies” to Ramagundam project of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in Rayalaseema and the Kothagudem thermal power stations of APGenco, besides Raichur Thermal Power Station of Karnataka Power Corporation and Parli Thermal Power Station of Maharashtra State Power Generation.
Last month, thermal power stations got only 30 million tonnes (mt) of coal as against the requirement of 37.9 mt.
As on October 31, 47 thermal power stations had “critical stock”. As many as 32 of them had super-critical stock — that is resources for less than four days.
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Besides the low production, transportation problems accentuated the intensity of the coal shortage. Its victims also included some new power stations: Chhabra Unit-2 of Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam; Sipat unit-1 and and Korba unit 6 of NTPC (both in Chhattisgarh); Kahalgaon unit-7 (Bihar); Durgapur Steel unit 1 and Mejia unit 6 of Damodar Valley Corporation besides Farakka unit 6 and Budge-Budge unit 3 of Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (all in West Bengal), the report said.
CEA, which advises the government on matters relating to the National Electricity Policy and formulates short-term and perspective plans for the development of electricity system, has estimated a 54 mt gap between the requirement and availability of domestic coal during the current fiscal.
As much as 34 mt out of this 54 mt was to be met through import of coal. For this, all the utilities have been advised to take necessary action. The rest 20 mt of coal was the requirement of power plants designed on imported coal.
Further, during October, the growth in coal-based generation was constrained due to a 79 per cent materialisation of the requirement of coal. The loss of generation of 1,868 million units (MUs) was due to shortage of coal alone.
“Had there been no coal shortages during October,” the report noted, “the actual thermal generation would have been 60,686 MUs with achievement of 101.95% with respect to the generation program and a growth rate of over 6.3%. Likewise during April-October, there was only 87% of the total requirement of coal available.”
The loss of generation due to shortage of coal during April-October was 5,328 MUs. For the same period, the loss of generation due to low system demand (including reserve shutdown) was 5,590 MUs. If there had been no coal shortage, the actual generation would have exceeded the target by about 800 MUs, CEA said.
As for region-wise growth rate of thermal generation, CEA said it was maximum (6.13%) in the southern region. Even so, the generation from the thermal power station was less compared to the generation targets in western, eastern and northeastern regions. “The less generation with respect to the generation programme was mainly due to coal shortages/wet coal problems, low system demand/reserve shutdown of thermal units and forced outages,” the report said.
The northern region achieved a maximum generation from thermal plants (106.23%) of the generation programme. The generation from the thermal power station during April-October had an overall generation growth rate of 5.06%.