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| Thermal plants face coal shortage | |
| Sudheer Pal Singh / New Delhi October 21, 2008, 0:01 IST | |
More than 60 per cent of India’s coal-based power plants are running with less than a week’s consumption of coal, threatening to affect power availability at a time when India’s peak deficit is hovering at around 15 per cent.
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the apex power sector planning body, said in its latest report that 50 out of 81 thermal power plants in India are having stocks less than 7 days of consumption in September, the latest period for which data are available. This is the highest number of plants having stocks below the critical level in recent times.
The CEA report cited non-receipt of coal, inadequate linkage and higher generation, as well as law and order problems as reasons for the current situation.
“The situation is getting worse,” said Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh, referring to supply of coal to the power stations. In some cases stock level has gone down to even two to three days, he added.
At present, India has 81 coal-based thermal power stations which are largely fed by coal supplied by Coal India Ltd (CIL), the country’s largest coal production utility, and its subsidiaries. India is planning to add about 78,700 Mw of power capacity in the current Plan period (2007-2012). A greater chunk of this capacity — 50,570 Mw or 64 per cent — is going to come from coal-based thermal power stations.
However, the coal ministry says that its allotting coal in excess of what was being asked. “We have given 101.6 per cent of coal than what we committed to the Planning Commission. Whatever shortfall is there in availability of coal, it is due to non-import of coal scheduled by the utilities. If they are not importing it, what can we do?” asked Santosh Bagrodia, minister of state for coal, adding that no power station in the country has lost production due to unavailability of coal.
However, experts of the industry believe that this worsening situation of coal availability at thermal power stations might lead to serious concerns for the power industry in the future.
“Coal sector is moving at a much slower pace than the power sector. The supply crisis will result in a major hit to future power projects because of a negative impact on the supply situation. The impact will be more on private power developers who have been assigned projects but have not yet linked fuel supply,” said Kuljit Singh, partner, Ernst & Young.
Singh also added that in future the developers would think twice before endorsing a project. “If the supply is not sufficient for current projects, how will it ensure availability of coal for future projects?” Singh asked.
The number of power stations running on critical level of coal stocks has seen a gradual increase since the beginning of the current year. In April, 24 stations were reported by the CEA to have critical stocks of coal. The number has now gone up to 50.
The list of power stations running at critical stocks of coal include 14 coal-based thermal power stations in the northern region, 10 stations in west, nine in south and 17 in the eastern region.
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