Coal news and updates

Water storage at 91 major reservoirs falls 3.73%

India Coal Market Watch

 December 1: The recent rains in Tamil Nadu in southern India that had severely disturbed normal life has helped increase water storage levels in reservoirs of the region, but it could not help increase overall storage levels of all the monitored reservoirs in the country.

 The water storage levels at 91 major reservoirs in the country that are monitored by the Central Waterways Commission (CWC) fell by 3.73% as on November 26 as compared to November 5, an official release said.

 The water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country as on November 26 fell to 83.20 BCM compared to 86.42 BCM as on November 5 and 93.59 BCM on October 15 and 95.693 BCM as on October 8, 2015.

 The decline in water levels is on expected lines with the monsoon having ended in major parts of the country. Consequently, the water levels in reservoirs has started declining which is leading to lower generation of electricity through the hydro route and consequently a higher demand for electricity generated through coal-fired plants.

 ICMW had earlier reported that the decline in water levels in reservoirs will lead to gradual fall in hydro power generation and consequently there will be pressure on thermal power generation plants that will lead to decline in coal stock positions at some of the power plants. An indication to that effect was witnessed in October, but the coal stock levels have again started rising from November.

 The storage levels in four of the five regions of the country as on November 26 was lower than that of November 5. However, on November 5, the storage levels in all the five regions was lower than that of October 15.

 On November 26, the reservoirs in southern India reported higher levels of storage at 18.05 BCM as compared to 16.56 BCM on November 5, while northern, eastern, western and central region dams showed lower storage levels.

 The storage level of 83.20 BCM on November 26 was 53% of the total storage capacity of 157.80 BCM of all the reservoirs. The figure stood at 55% and 59% as on November 5 and October 15 respectively.

 The total water storage capacity created in the country is estimated to be 253.388 BCM.

 Northern region

 The northern region includes states of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan. There are 6 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 18.01 BCM.

 The total live storage available in these reservoirs was 12.26 BCM on November 26, down from 13.71 BCM on November 5 and 14.92 BCM on October 15.

 Eastern region

 The eastern region includes states of Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Tripura. There are 15 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 18.83 BCM.

 The total live storage available in these reservoirs was 11.48 BCM on November 26, down from 12.04 BCM on November 5 and 13.09 BCM on October 15.

 Western region

 The Western region includes states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. There are 27 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 27.07BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs on November 26 was 13.65 BCM down from 15.00 BCM on November 5 and 16.30 BCM on October 15

 Central region

 The Central region includes States of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. There are 12 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 42.30BCM.

 The total live storage available in these reservoirs was 27.76 BCM, down from 29.11 BCM on November 5 and 31.08 BCM on October 15.

 Southern region

 The southern region includes Andhra Pradesh-Telangana, (two combined projects in both states) Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. There are 31 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 51.59 BCM.

 The total live storage available in these reservoirs was 18.05 BCM, up from 16.56 BCM as on November 5 and 18.20 BCM on October 15.