Thermal plants face coal shortage

6 November 2017

The thermal power projects in the State have been facing shortage of coal. According to official sources, three power generation units have been shut due to coal shortage out of the seven power generation units at Narla Tata Rao Thermal Power Station (NTTPS) in Vijayawada. The power generation went down by 840 megawatts as against the total capacity of 1,720 megawatts.

As many 28,000 tonnes of coal is required for power generation needs of NTTPS per day but only 20,000 tonnes are being supplied from coal agencies. The State government has not taken the issue seriously as it is laying emphasis on increasing wind and solar energy.

Similarly, two power generation units in Krishnapatnam and one unit in Hinduja Power Project have also been closed temporarily due to coal unavailability. However, the government has been giving priority to utilise wind and solar energy as the cost of production per unit is lesser than the thermal power.

The situation is not different in Rayalaseema Thermal Power and Simhadri Power projects in the state. The NTTPS of Vijayawada has seven power generation units with a total capacity of 1,720 megawatts but only four units are working at present and sometimes particularly nights another unit is also being closed after taking the power requirement into consideration.

So far, the thermal power stations in the State have been importing coal from Odisha and Singareni Collieries of Telangana State. But the coal supply has come down drastically from these two areas in the recent past.

Only one rake coal is being supplied by Singareni at present against its previous normal supply of four to five rakes per day. The coal supply has been restricted after the State bifurcation.

The coal shortage situation could lead to serious shortage of power supply in the State, if there is any decline in wind and solar power production, said an official on condition of anonymity.

Besides, frequent strikes by the staff in the coal mines at Talcher of Odisha, is also one of the reasons for shortage in coal supplies, said Padma Sujatha, NTTPS Chief Engineer.

Speaking to The Hans India, she said that now they were producing the power as per demand and admitted that they were facing coal shortage.

Source: The Hans India