Talcher reopens after four-day shutdown

After a four-day shutdown due to coal shortage, National Thermal Power Corporation's (NTPC's) Talcher Super Thermal Station in Orissa started operations this evening after supplies were restored.

Power ministry officials said that the Talcher generating unit shut down operations earlier this week due to shortage of coal while some other thermal power plants were operating with coal supplies of less than a week.

Ideally, thermal power units located at coal pit heads should have a coal supply of at least 15 days while those away from pit heads should have more than 15 days supply.

According to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the Talcher power station with 2,000 mega watt capacity had coal supply of a day while the 460 MW unit had two days supply.

The units are located at the coal pit-heads and the 460 MW unit was shut down for a month till October 3 citing annual maintenance.

According to CEA's daily coal report, 14 thermal power stations had "critical coal stock" with supplies of less than a week, while eight stations had "super critical coal stock position" where the stocks would meet the demand for less than four days.

Vijayvada, Ennore, Rihand in Uttar Pradesh, Mejia, Kolkata and Titagarh in West Bengal were the other power plants in the super critical coal stock list.

While the Cabinet secretariat has been monitoring the situation for the last few weeks, the latest scarcity has prompted Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi to himself take stock of the situation.

Apart from power secretary RV Shahi, coal secretary PC Parakh and Railway Board officials have also been called for a meeting.

According to power ministry's estimates lower supplies from the Northern, Easters and Mahanadi Coalfields would face in an average coal shortage of 10.66 million tonne during the last three years of the Tenth Plan which draws to a close in March 2007.

The power ministry had also blamed the Railways for making available less than the required number of wagons for transporting coal to generating stations located at a distance from the pitheads.

The problem had been sorted out to an extent at the beginning of the financial year but officials said that the additional coaches made available were not sufficient.