Coal news and updates

GVK awaits coal supply to start power plant in Punjab

GVK Power & Infrastructure will start power generation at its 540 MW Goindwal Sahib plant in Punjab as soon as the station starts getting coal, and has no plans to sell the facility to NTPCBSE -0.65 %, chief financial officer Issac George said.


But its captive mines in Jharkhand are yet to start production and the coal ministry has so far refused to allocate the dry fuel from other sources, which means it can't immediately operate the station though it is ready to start power generation.


"The project is ready; two of its units have already been tested on oil. We are only waiting for coal allocation from the coal ministry as the Tokisud and Seregarha mines in Jharkhand, the two captive mines allocated to the project, will be commissioned in the next 2-3 months," George told ET.

"To commence power production we require critical mass of a six-month coal stock pile, so we have asked the coal ministry for an interim supply of 150,000 metric tonne of coal," he said.

"We made this request sixeight months back. They say we have captive mines (so they can't supply from other mines), but we say this is not a permanent demand." He said the company's gas based power plants in Andhra Pradesh are hit because of lower gas supplies from the Krishna-Godavari basin.

Source: The Economic Times