A shipment of 100,000 tonne coal from Indonesia has arrived at Kakinada seaport as part of a contingent plan to ensure coal supplies to thermal power stations in Andhra Pradesh.
The energy department had placed orders for import of coal in advance in view of the strike by coal mine workers of state-owned Singareni Collieries from September 14. “The coal is equivalent to 180,000 tonne domestic coal owing to higher calorific value, which means the present shipment is sufficient to feed our thermal stations for three days,” a senior official of the energy department told Business Standard on Saturday.
The authorities have got this shipment by leveraging the coal import quota permitted by the Union power ministry. The state can import 1.6 million tonne coal to meet the requirements of thermal stations this year.
The available stocks at the respective power stations are expected to last for another four days as there are no fresh supplies coming from Singareni, which provides 70 per cent of its coal output to thermal units. Of the daily average production of 135,000 tonne, only around 30,000 tonne coal is being extracted from a couple of open cast mines in Singareni coalfields.
AP is also receiving coal from outside, though not enough to meet the entire demand, as some of its power stations has coal linkages from Talcher (Orissa). The same is the case with some of the NTPC units in the state.
The government is also trying to bring additional coal from Orissa and other places but shortage of railway rakes is slowing these efforts. APGenco’s stations require 65,000 tonne coal a day and continuation of strike for a longer period will make these contingency plans gradually ineffective.
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The authorities were able to avert any large-scale power disruptions as sufficient inflows into all the major reservoirs during the current season had allowed the state to put close to 3,000 Mw capacity under hydro power stations in use. While APGenco has been operating the thermal stations with a slightly lowered PLF to preserve the available coal stocks, the discoms have been imposing a 2-4 hour load relief on households.
Officials are making arrangements to transport the coal from Kakinada port to thermal units having lower coal stocks on a priority basis.