Amit Shah takes stock as coal supply to power plants rises amid blackout bogey

NEW DELHI: Coal inventories at power stations have started rising on the back of improved dispatch, it was noted at a meeting home minister Amit Shah had on Monday with power minister Raj Kumar Singh, coal minister Prahlad Joshi and top officials of the two ministries to take stock of the fuel supply situation for electricity generation, sources told TOI.
It was noted that coal stocks grew at power plants by 48,000 tonnes and 25,000 tonnes, respectively, on October 9 and 10 as more consignments were despatched from Coal India’s mines as the monsoon subsided in coal-bearing states.
While the numbers may not appear significant, they indicate a clear reversal in the trend, which is expected to improve further as mining and loading operations pick up pace after dewatering of mines that were inundated due to concentrated rains towards September-end.
Dhanbad in Jharkhand, which is the production area of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd, for example, received 300 mm of rain for three days from September 30 against, say, 600 mm that Delhi receives in a year.
Indeed, on October 9, coal consignments sent to power plants from state-run mines exceeded consumption. Against a consumption of 1.87 million tonnes, the state-run miners despatched 1.92 million tonnes of coal, which will gradually build up inventories at power plants.
Shah’s meeting came in the backdrop of blackout bogey raised over the weekend by Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd CEO Ganesh Srinivasan and Delhi power minister Satyendar Jain, citing coal shortage at power plants feeding the national Capital.
While there is no denying that nearly half of the non-pithead domestic coal-fired plants are running low on fuel, it did not threaten generation as inventories were being replenished daily. The situation has been aggravated by a 30% reduction in generation by imported coal-fired plants under PPAs due to high international coal prices, while domestic coal-based power supply has gone up nearly 24% in the first half. The imported coal-based power plants have generated about 25.6 billion units against a programme of 45.7 billion units.
On the situation in Delhi, it was noted that Tata Power had shut its imported coal-based power plant with 4,000 MW capacity at Mundra because it was unable to supply power as per the tariff in the PPA (power purchase agreement) due to the recent spike in international coal prices.
It was also noted that cheaper power was available from NTPC’s Dadri station but Delhi discoms were loathe to source power from the plant as they wanted to exit PPAs after 25-year validity ended, citing “high” tariff of about Rs 5-6 per unit against Rs 3-4 on the exchanges earlier.
The rates, however, have risen to Rs 12-13 per unit in recent times as demand grew on uptick in economic activities and dip in coal supply, which prompted some private power producers to back down some of their capacities as they did not maintain stipulated inventories to avoid carrying costs.