Coal news and updates

 

The coal crisis in UP's thermal power plants deepened on Thursday in wake of inadequate supply from Jharkhand.

 

Three days back Naxals had blown up a dedicated railway line of Coal India Limited (CIL) in Latehar district of Jharkhand. The coal supplying rail rakes were, therefore, diverted through Gomuh in Bihar. But congestion in rail traffic has resulted in slow supply of coal to UP's power plants.

 

Reports said adequate quantity of coal transported from CIL-owned mines could not reach state-owned thermal power plants like Paricha, Panki and Harduaganj, besides NTPC's Unchahar power station in Rae Bareli.

 

An official of UP Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam, monitoring coal movement into thermal power plants, told TOI that only one or two rakes of coal was allowed to be transported. "Only a few empty rakes moving out of UP could be filled,'' he said.

 

While Panki and Harduaganj plants were getting only one rake each, the supply was restricted to two rakes (about 7,000 tonnes coal) in 1,140 MW Paricha. This was almost half of the requirement at these power plants. At 1,630 MW Anpara power plant supply was restricted to only 8,000 tonne against the requirement of over 28,000 tonne. Coal supply to Unchahar power plant also got restricted.

 

According to Northern Region Load Dispatch Centre, the low supply of coal resulted in tripping of 210 MW unit in Unchahar. Already, a 300 MW unit in Rosa and 600 MW unit in Lanco power plants have gone off the state grid because of coal shortage.

 

The development came amid another reminder by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to the Centre demanding adequate supply of coal to run the state-owned power plants. He has also demanded coal linkages for the private power plants which have been proposed under the MoU route by the state government.

 

In wake of coal shortage, power generation from state-owned plants has dipped to 1,700 MW, sending the authorities into a tailspin. As against the demand of over 11,000 MW, supply was restricted to over 10,000 MW. This was also met by heavy purchase of over 1,400 MW power from the energy exchange.

 

Meanwhile, heavy rostering was resorted to across the state. While major cities like Lucknow, Noida and Ghaziabad reportedly were without power for over five hours, rural areas faced cuts for over 18 hours.

 

 

Source: ToI