Coal news and updates

Marginal increase water storage at important reservoirs of India

September 19: The water storage available in 85 important reservoirs of India stood at 123.108 BCM as on September 18, 2014, up from 119.785 BCM as on September 11, but down 6% from the storage of corresponding period of last year, an official release said on September 19.

Industry sources said, the improvement in water level in important reservoirs might have helped in generation of higher volume of hydro power thereby putting less pressure on coal fired power as they would have to generate less, which would augur well at a time when most of the thermal plants are facing critical coal stock situation.

The storage as on September 18 was 79% of the storage capacity the total storage capacity of 155.046 BCM of these reservoirs as against 77% of the capacity as on September 11.

Central Water Commission monitors live storage status of 85 important reservoirs of the country on weekly basis.

These reservoirs include 37 reservoirs having hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 MW. The total storage capacity of these reservoirs is 155.046 BCM which is about 61% of the storage capacity of 253.388 BCM which is estimated to have been created in the country.

The 6 reservoirs in Northern Region’s Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan with storage capacity of 18.01 BCM had a storage of 15.38 BCM as on September 18, up from 148.68 BCM as on September 11.

In the Eastern Region’s 15 reservoirs in Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Tripura, the storage was 14.61 BCM as against 14.12 BCM as on September 11. These reservoirs had a total storage capacity of 18.83 BCM.

The 22 reservoirs in two Western Region states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, with total storage capacity of 24.54 BCM, had available storage of 20.12 BCM as on September 18, up from 19.18 BCM as on September 11.

The 12 reservoirs in four Central Region states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, which have total storage capacity of 42.30 BCM had a storage level of 37.28 BCM, up from 34.73 BCM on September 11.

Similarly, the 30 reservoirs in Southern Region states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which had total storage capacity of 51.37 BCM, had storage level of 37.28 BCM as on September 18, up marginally from 36.89 BCM as on September 11.

The release said that as on September 18, the states having better storage than last year for corresponding period were Jharkhand, Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh.

On September 11, the states having better storage than last year for corresponding period were Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh.

The states having lesser storage than last year, as on September 18 for corresponding period were Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

As on September 11, the states having equal storage to last year for corresponding period were Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Karnataka.