Odisha seeks 16 mnt coal linkage from MCL for OPGC expansion

With unavailability of coal posing hurdle to 1320 Mw expansion plan of Odisha Power Generation Corporation (OPGC), the only state-owned thermal power generator, the state government has sought interim coal linkage from Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) from its Basundhara group of mines.

The government has requested MCL to provide interim coal requirement to the tune of 16 million tonnes to OPGC to feed two new units of 660 Mw each over a period of three years from the Basundhara group of mines beginning from the later part of 2016-17, when the expansion project is expected to go on stream.

OPGC's coal requirement has been projected at four million tonnes (mt), eight mt and four mt in 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively.

 

Chief Secretary B K Patnaik urged the MCL authorities to indicate their ability to provide the interim coal linkage to the Ministry of Coal so that the matter can be placed before the Standing Linkage Committee (long-term) on Coal which is likely to be meet soon.

Earlier, the state government had written to Ministry of Coal for tapering coal linkage for OPGC expansion. The expansion project, which envisages adding two units-Unit 3 & 4 to the existing two units of the company operating at its Banharpalli complex near Jharsuguda, is being taken up at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore.

Though Manoharpur and dip side of Manoharpur coal blocks were allocated for the OPGC project, it is feared that the coal mine would not be in a position to achieve full capacity within two years of the commissioning of the power plant. The development of the coal blocks were affected due to the classification by Union ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) as 'No-Go' category which were reclassified into 'Go' category only in June 2011.

This had prompted the state government to seek tapering coal linkage to support the OPGC expansion plan. Tapering linkage is the short-term linkage which is provided to those coal consumers who have been allocated captive coal blocks for meeting the coal requirements of their linked end use plants (EUPs) in such cases where the production of coal from these blocks does not synchronize with the requirement of the EUPs.

Meanwhile all permits and clearances for power plant including land, water, forest and environment clearance are already available. Besides, proposals for BTG (boiler-turbine-generator) and BOP (balance of plant) packages have been received and techno-commercial evaluation has been completed.