Nalco expects to restore 120 MW unit soon

With the improvement in coal supply from the mines of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) and the imported coal of National Aluminium Company (Nalco) set to arrive soon, the aluminum major expects to restore the closed120 MW unit of its captive power plant (CPP) here within 4-5 days.

“We are getting about 15,000 tonnes of coal per day from the nearby Talcher coalfields of MCL. Moreover, the company’s imported coal will start arriving within a day or two. This will stabilise our coal stock and enable the company to resume generation from the 120 MW unit of CPP which was shut down due to acute coal shortage”, said a top Nalco official.

Besides Nalco’s linked Bharatpur mines at the Talcher coalfields, the company will source coal from other mines of MCL at Talcher through railway rakes.

This was decided at a high level meeting between the officials of Nalco and MCL on Monday.

Nalco authorities expect the first rake of its 1.5 lakh tonnes of imported coal to reach the plant here from the Paradip port within a day. At present, the company has a coal stock of 1.15 lakh tonnes out of which 70,000 tonnes are recoverable.

It may be noted that Nalco had shut down a 120 MW unit of its 960 MW (8x120 MW) CPP here on Monday due to inadequate supply of coal from MCL. The closure of the 120 MW unit had hit power supply to Nalco’s smelter plant which had to manage with 630 Mw against the regular supply of 710 MW.

The aluminium major had to purchase 20-30 MW from Grid Corporation of Orissa (Gridco) to tide over the crisis.

The Nalco authorities said, the shut down of the 120 MW unit had no impact on the aluminium output, but warned of a fall in output if the deficit in power supply continued for two to three days.

Nalco is currently running 835 pots out of a total of 840 pots producing 1,100 tonnes of aluminium per day. The remaining 5 pots are kept for maintenance.

Following the shut down of the 120 MW unit on Monday, Nalco has been running the remaining seven units which consume 14,000 tonnes of coal per day. Nalco blends imported coal with the local coal at the ratio of 15:85 in order to avoid higher cost of production.

Keeping in view the current coal crisis, the Nalco authorities have put off the commissioning of its ninth 120 MW unit of its CPP to next month. The ninth unit is being set up under a programme to expand the smelter and CPP capacities.

The company would soon have a meeting with the top officials of MCL on securing the coal linkage for this additional unit of CPP, sources said.