Power stations, states ask Coal India to stop supply

Close to a dozen power plants across UP, Maharashtra and West Bengal cited reasons like high stock at plant sites or backing down of power demand by host states

Coal availability in the country, when there is muted power demand growth has resulted in a situation with plants requesting Coal India Limited (CIL) to stop further supply. Close to a dozen power plants across UP, Maharashtra and West Bengal have written to CIL and its subsidiaries, citing reasons like high stock at sites and backing down of power demand by host states.

In Maharashtra, there is double trouble, with water scarcity forcing the GMR group to shut down generation and seek diversion of coal to its other units. GMR’s EMCO plant in the state shut down in April due to lack of water supply. The plant has written to Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) to allocate water, as “it will have a major impact on the power generation, thus resulting in disruption of power supplies to various states and power scarcity in the region.”

The plant supplies power to Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Dadar & Nager Haveli. GMR has also asked South East Coalfield Limited (SECL) to divert the coal to its sister unit, GMR Chhattisgarh. Water supply to the Warora plant has been stopped by the government  due to drought in Maharashtra. Subsequently, the unit 1 of 300 Mw capacity was forced to shutdown from April 15.

“As the power crisis in the region is getting more and more serious, the second unit of 300 Mw is also likely to shut within a couple of days,” EMCO told SECL in a letter dated May 4 .

Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited has asked Central Coalfield Limited (CCL) to temporary transfer 60 per cent of contracted coal supply for Panipat thermal power plant to Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Plant (RGTPP) in Hisar district. The utility said in its letter to the coal company that it is because “Panipat TPS is facing continuous backing down of generation units” due to lack of corresponding increase in power demand.

Business Standard has reviewed all the letters by these states and utilities to Coal India and its subsidiaries. NTPC thermal power plants in Farkka (WB), Tanda and Unchhahar (UP) have also asked Coal India for stoppage of coal supply. NTPC- Unchahar plants said it has coal stock of close to nine lakh tonne which is equivalent to 64 days of supply.

“As the yard is full and there is no space for stacking of coal, it is requested to stop the coal supply for remaining period of the month. This situation has arisen due to less coal consumption on account of low generation schedule,” said the letter by NTPC-Unchahar (UP) to CCL, dated last month.

UP Rajya Vidyut Udpadan Nigam Limited has written similar request to cease coal supply for its Hardaunganj and Panki power plant.

Damodar Valley Corporation has asked Bharat Coking Coal Limited, Eastern Coalfield  and Indian Railways to stop any further supply of coal and allot any more rakes to its power units in Durgapur, Chandrapura and Mejia. During the last fiscal, CIL ramped up its coal production to 538 million tonne while the offtake was 534 million tonne, which the company said in its annual result is a record. Coal availability at power plants sites is at a record high of 28 days. CIL plans to achieve one billion tonne of coal production in five years.

At the same time, electricity demand from financially beleaguered discoms has not shown similar corresponding increase. The peak deficit between power demand and supply during last year was 3.2 per cent. The government in its estimates expects it to come down to 2.5 per cent in the current year.

Rs 10-lakh cr investments needed for 1.5-bn-tonne coal output

Investments to the tune of more than Rs 10 lakh crore would be required in coal mining and allied sectors like power, steel and cement to achieve the target of 1.5 billion tonnes of coal production by 2019-20, according to a report. "India has set an ambitious target of 1.5 billion tonnes (BT) of domestic coal production by FY 2020 and will need huge investments adding up to more than Rs 10 lakh crore in coal mining and its allied sectors like power, steel, cement, infrastructure for logistics, and coal washeries for achieving this goal," the latest PwC-ICC report said. (PTI)