The Hindu Business Line : NTPC’s plant in Orissa facing coal shortage

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 12 State-run NTPC Ltd’s 3,000 MW Kaniha power plant in Orissa is reeling under a coal shortage due to supply disruptions from Mahanadi Coal Fields, a senior company official said today.

“We have only a day’s coal stock with us instead of our usual inventory of 15 days of stock,” the official said.

The country’s second largest single location power plant currently requires 50,000 tonnes coal a day to run five of its six power units of 500 MW each.

55,000 tonnes needed

Once the sixth unit, which is currently under annual maintenance, starts running at full capacity, the NTPC unit will require 55,000 tonnes to feed all units.

“The coal supply situation remains tight in the plant. For instance, today, we have got only 20 rakes instead of 25 from Talcher coal mines,” the official said.

NTPC Kaniha draws coal from Talcher coal mines, Ib valley, and Lingaraj coal mines, all units of Mahanadi Coal Fields. Currently, due to heavy rainfall in coal mining zones, Mahanadi Coal Fields is finding it difficult to transport coal from mines to the plant.

In May last year, NTPC Kaniha had slipped to a super critical stage as its coal stocks fell to less than a day’s requirement.

Importing feedstock

The official said this time, however, the coal crunch will hopefully be overcome soon, as the company has already placed orders for importing the feedstock.

“The situation will improve in October when we start receiving the imported coal,” the official said.

He said by October, supplies from Mahanadi are also likely to improve as rains would be over by then.

The power plant is likely to get 1.5-2 lakh tonnes of imported coal of the total 8.2 million tonnes being imported by NTPC. — © NewsWire18 Pvt. Ltd. 2008

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