Power shortfall hits aluminium output at Nalco's smelter plant

The short supply of power from the captive power plant (CPP) of National Aluminium Company (Nalco) borne out of the coal crisis has hit the aluminium production at its smelter plant here.

The average production of aluminium at Nalco's smelter plant has fallen to 1100 tonnes from the normal figure of 1200 tonnes a dip of 8.33 per cent. This is because the smelter plant is getting an average of 740 MW of power per day as against the requirement of 810 MW to run the pot lines.

After the second phase expansion, Nalco is operating 927 out of 960 pots at its smelter plant, leaving the rest for maintenance, said a company official. Similarly, the navratna company is running eight out of the nine 120 MW units of its CPP, leaving one unit in the standby mode.

After keeping about 80 MW for its internal consumption, the CPP supplies 740 MW to the smelter complex.Nalco has recently added 240 pots at its smelter plant under its Phase-II expansion project. But it is yet to support this expansion with commensurate capacity addition in CPP. Only one 110 MW captive power unit was added in August last year but another 120 MW unit-the tenth CPP unit is yet to be commissioned.

The coal shortage has cast a shadow over the CPP, admitted a company source.Nalco needs a minimum of 20,000 tonnes of coal per day to run the ten units of its CPP but the current supply from all sources is limited to 16000-17000 tonnes per day. According to Nalco authorities, the company can enter into coal linkage agreement with Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) for the tenth unit only after the unit is fired.

Meanwhile, the Nalco authorities are making frantic efforts to source coal from various alternative sources. Besides drawing coal from its linked mine at the Talcher Coalfields under the command area of MCL, the company has planned to import 0.6 million tonnes of coal in the current fiscal.

It also sought 0.5 million tonnes of washed coal from the washeries through the e-auction mode. A total of 48,000 tonnes of coal have been procured by the aluminium major by the e-auction route.