Plan to give adequate coal to power plants executed: Ministry

On the eve of Diwali, the Union Power Ministry announced that a detailed plan has been put into action from Wednesday to ensure sufficient supply of coal to power plants.

An official statement here following a joint review of the fuel supply situation by Power Minister R.K. Singh and Railways and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said the ministers had also spoken to states, which had requested for more supply of coal.

"A detailed plan has been agreed which would be implemented from October 18, 2017 (Wednesday) and would ensure sufficient supply of coal to power plants," a Power Ministry statement said.

The ministers also noted that supply to states like Maharashtra had improved and efforts would be made to improve the coal supply at all the power stations with low stocks, the statement said.

The review follows complaints by some power producers about facing low coal stocks at their plants.

According to a Central Electricity Authority (CEA) daily report, as many as 22 plants had coal for less than four days, while four had stocks for less then a week, as on October 16.

The ministers also agreed that the issues with some Damodar Valley Corporation power plants, arising from closure of the Dhanbad-Chandrapura railway line, would be resolved expeditiously.

The statement said that press reports had highlighted the rise in price of power on the power exchange on October 16, to Rs 10.8 per unit.

It said that power prices on the Indian Energy Exchange on that day on an average was Rs 5.45 per unit, and maximum price were Rs 10.80 only for half an hour from 6.30 pm to 7.00 pm.

The prices on Wednesday dropped to average for the day of Rs 4.33 per unit, the statement added.

--IANS

bc/nir