Coal news and updates

Power supply in the state has been hit lately owing to short supply of electricity from central sector and the shutdown of the Kanti Thermal Power Station Unit-1. Against the daily requirement of around 4,000MW, the state received 3,282MW on Wednesday.

Senior Officials in the energy department, however, ruled out any crisis situation owing to reduced power demand in winter season and additional power purchases from the open market.

Unit-1 of Kanti was shut down on December 4 owing to short supply of coal. The total power generation capacity of this unit is 110MW which is utilized by Bihar only.

Apart from Kanti, unit-2 of NTPC’s Talchar Thermal Power Station and unit-5 of NTPC’s Barh Super Thermal Power Station are also down owing to annual maintenance and boiler tube leakage, respectively.

Unit-2 of Talchar station in Odisha has a capacity to generate 500MW out of which Bihar gets 100MW. In case of Barh, its unit-5 power generation capacity is 660MW and Bihar gets 65% electricity out of that.

As a result of low generation at Talchar and Barh plants, the central power supply to the state stood at 1,748MW on Wednesday against the maximum allocation of 2,942MW.

“As on Wednesday, we were able to supply 3,282MW power in the state. The supply from the central sector was comparatively low owing to reduced power generation at Talchar and Barh plants. Besides, unit-1 of Kanti station was also shut down last Sunday owing to coal shortage,” said a senior official in the state energy department.

R Lakshmanan, managing director at South Bihar Power Distribution Company, however, claimed no pressure on power supply in the state. “Power purchase from the open market through short-term agreements has been increased to 1,434MW. It was normally around 1,000MW and even plunges to 700MW in case of sufficient supply from other sources. Besides, the power demand itself is comparatively less during winter season. Hence, there is no pressure on the system,” Lakshmanan told TOI on Wednesday.

Source: TOI