The Hindu Business Line : Coal shortage: NTPC units in critical stage

THE ongoing coal shortage in the country has wreaked havoc with the power generation schedule in several of the country's larger thermal plants, with NTPC's Talcher, Farakka and Kahalgaon super thermal power stations among the worst hit.

The Ministry has already identified over 20 thermal stations that are in a "critical" stage, with less than a week's stock of coal. The situation in about 15 of the stations has been designated as "super-critical", with coal stock expected to last less than four days.

Besides the Talcher station of NTPC, which has reported a loss of generation of between 50 million and 275 million units every month since July 2004, generation at the Farakka and Kahalgaon super thermal power stations of NTPC has also been disrupted since December last year.

"To meet the present coal requirement at various NTPC stations, the company is importing 2.1 million tonnes of coal at the rate of 1.75 lakh tonnes per month for one year," a Government official said.

NTPC has roped in MMTC to import the consignment, of which 1.25 lakh tonnes is meant for stations on the eastern coast while the remaining 50,000 tonnes is for the Dadri station in Uttar Pradesh.

The country has been facing an acute shortage of coal and the Government has projected a shortage of around 11 million tonnes this year as well as in 2006.

The Power Ministry has now asked the State electricity boards (SEBs) and NTPC to expedite coal imports to keep their plants running.

NTPC, which is on a major power expansion drive, is set to add 2,000 MW of thermal capacity by the end of 2006. The company has also tried making an aggressive foray into coal mining to tie up fuel linkages and several of its new projects being developed as pithead stations. But with a number of these coal blocks still awaiting clearances, the company has been left with no option but to import coal.

Besides NTPC, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) has also invited bids for sourcing one million tonne of coal from abroad for meeting its fuel requirements, industry players said.

Other States, including several of the coastal ones, are also reportedly in negotiations to import coal to meet shortages at their plants.

Meanwhile, Coal India officials admitted to the coal shortage but said that there had been many occasions when coal stocks could not be despatched in time because of shortage of rakes.

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