Coal shortage may hit 4,400 MW power generation capacities at NTPC

29 May 2017

4,400 MW of NTPC power generation capacities face severe coal scarcity in three months because the mine that fuels these plants is not able to acquire the land needed to maintain fuel supply.

Coal India subsidiary Eastern Coalfield’s Rajmahal mines in Jharkhand have reserves for three months only and need to acquire land to produce more coal for plants that supply electricity to eastern states such as Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, company executives said.

Coal supplies to NTPC’s Farakka and Kahalgaon have already fallen, reducing stocks to almost three days now from at least 10 days in the recent past. In the last 20 days combined stocks at both these plants are down from 9.4 lakh tonnes to 4.8 lakh tonnes.

“Monsoons are nearing and if the issue is not solved in the next one month, supplies to NTPC’s Farakka station with a capacity of 2,100 MW and Kahalgaon generating stations with an installed capacity of 2,340 MW will completely stop within three months. At present these two generating stations are running at around 90% due to a harsh summer leading to increased demand for power. It has been bringing down stocks steadily,” said a senior NTPCBSE -0.13 % official.

Source – ET