To meet the ever-increasing demand for power from agriculture, industrial, IT and infrastructure sectors, the Andhra Pradesh government is contemplating taking up long-term programmes to maintain adequate coal stocks in the thermal stations for optimum generation.
Towards this, the government has requested the Centre to issue necessary instructions for allocating additional coal blocks to public sector undertaking Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) so as to reduce the burden of coal imports.
The state has also urged the Centre to support SCCL, which supplies coal to six major thermal power stations in addition to several small and medium enterprises, to become a role model in the implementation of technological advancements in the field of mining for enhancing coal production.
In a letter to the Centre, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy said availability of coal reserves was essential for augmenting production capacity of SCCL.
To meet this requirement, SCCL has identified five coal blocks – Kundanali-Labori (reserves of 364 million tonne) and Burapahar (550 million tonne) in Orissa, Bandha (388 million tonne) and Gand Bchera Ujhni (542 million tonne) at Singrauli in Uttar Pradesh and Berpali-Kamitikra (179.5 million tonne) at Mand in Chhattisgarh – and has requested the Union power ministry for allocation, the chief minister said in a press release on Sunday.
APGenco, the third largest power utility in the country, is catering to around 60 per cent of the power needs of the state. For coal-based thermal power plants, daily consumption of coal of around 73,500 tonne is met by SCCL, which supplies around 55,000 tonne per day, and by Talcher coalfield of the Mahanadi Coalfields, which supplies around 15,000 tonne coal per day.
In addition to this, APGenco is procuring imported coal of 3,500 tonne per day even though it is costlier to achieve maximum efficiency in generation. Even in this critical juncture, APGenco thermal power plants are maintaining an average plant load factor of more than 90 per cent by making all out efforts, according to K Vijayanand, managing director of APGenco.
More From This Section
... action plan for rabi
The state government has directed the power utilities to take all possible steps to strictly ensure seven hours of power supply to the agricultural sector for the ensuing rabi season. Principal secretary (energy) Dinesh Kumar on Sunday decided to conduct a review meeting on general power supply position and various key issues of the power sector on December 27.
He also directed power utilities to prepare a comprehensive action plan for rabi to protect the crops of farmers. “Our ultimate goal is to strictly follow the programme and ensure adequate power supply to agri pumpsets,” he said.