The Hindu Business Line : `Thermal power stations facing critical coal stock positions'

THE creation of new power generation capacity is going to be a tough job in the years to come as the availability position of conventional fuels such as coal and natural gas appears "uncomfortable" in the present reckoning.

This was indicated by Mr R.V. Shahi, Secretary in the Union Ministry of Power, at a seminar here on `Enhancing energy efficiency: Best practices in operations and management.'

Mr Shahi said the country would require an additional 25 million tonnes of coal in the next two years to cater to the requirement of thermal power stations under implementation. These power stations were still in the dark about the possible sources of assured supply of coal.

He suggested that the state-owned coal companies augment coal production to ensure adequate availability of power-grade clean coal.

He said that at least 22 thermal power stations in the country had been running with critical coal stock positions while existing gas-based power plants were unable to raise their plant load factor (PLF) beyond 60 to 62 per cent because of the short supply of natural gas. He felt that intensive efforts had to be made to improve the availability of coal and natural gas.

Mr Shahi said his Ministry had plans to impose certain restrictions on the consumption of power by industries. Energy management and energy audit had to be made mandatory for each company. These measures were being taken to step up energy efficiency.

Speaking at the same seminar, organised here by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Mr R.B. Sharma, Member-Secretary of Eastern Regional Electricity Board (EREB), said that the generation scenario in the eastern region had undergone a dramatic change. During the first quarter (April to June) of the current fiscal, total gross generation from this region was 20,619 million units (mu), which is about 20 per cent more than the figure for the same period last year.

This sort of growth in generation had been made possible because of coordination among power generators, coal companies and railways. In fact, the eastern region exported more than 400 mu of energy during the first quarter of the current fiscal. With this higher growth in export, the demand in the eastern region during April to June' 04 had also shown a tendency of higher growth rate of seven per cent as against normal growth rate of 4-5 per cent.

Mr Sharma said that this region's inter-State transmission networks were operating to its full capacity. Occasionally, its fragility and lack of redundancy were also getting exposed.