Coal news and updates

Power generation units stare at coal shortages

Coal production in the open cast projects of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) has declined owing to rains in the last few days. As a result, power generation in National Thermal Power Corporation unit at Ramagundam has taken a hit.

Of the 2,600 MWs capacity at Ramagundam, only 1,900 MWs is generated owing to coal shortage. The sixth unit with 500 MW capacity has been shut down on Tuesday while 200 MW third unit is down for the last one week for annual overhauling process. The existing stocks at the NTPC stock yard have exhausted and it was mainly depending on daily supply from SCCL and other agencies.

Due to rains, the SCCL has production loss of 75,000 MT in the four OCPs in Ramagundam region. Presently, it supplies 20,000 MTs to NTPC against normal quota of 35,000 MTs a day.

The NTPC sources pointed out that short supply from SCCL and other agencies led to reduced generation. The NTPC Ramagundam unit consumes 38,000 MTs a day to generate power in all its seven units.

In Khammam, shortage of quality coal particularly the ‘C’ grade continues to haunt the Kothagudem Thermal Power Station (KTPS) at Palvancha resulting in loss of power generation to the tune of 300 MWs. Sources said that the unit 11 of the KTPS’s Stage VI (1X500 MWs) is facing severe shortage of C grade coal. Although the boiler tubes of the Unit 11 were designed to use C grade coal, the short supply of that particular grade of coal has compelled the authorities concerned to use F grade coal to run the unit, sources said.

The Unit 11 has a coal linkage from Mahanadi Coalfields Limited of Odisha. It envisaged supply of 2.31 million tonnes of coal per annum to the unit. With the ground stocks of C grade coal on the verge of getting exhausted, the authorities have switched over to alternative options to ensure power generation from the unit.

However, the KTPS presently has the requisite quantity of E and F grade coal stocks supplied by the SCCL. The KTPS’ 11 units require coal to the tune of 30,000 metric tonnes per day to achieve the full power generation potential of 1720 MWs of the thermal power station.

An estimated 95,000 metric tonnes of ground stock of coal is currently available in the KTPS. But this quantity is not adequate enough to meet the exigencies if any arising out of heavy rains and other factors that may hamper fresh coal supplies, sources said.

Source: The Hindu