Coal news and updates

PLF of 79 stations below national average in Apr-Nov

December 18: As many as 79 power stations had a plant load factor (PLF) below the national average during the first eight months (April-November) of 2014-15 due to various reasons, including transmission constraints, Power Minister Piyush Goyal was quoted as saying in an official release.

“This was due to various reasons such as planned maintenance, forced outages, transmission constraints, availability of fuel and quality of fuel, lesser schedule given by beneficiary states due to low demand or higher cost of generation,” the minister said.

He pointed out that the PLF of coal and lignite-based power plants had been falling consistently from 2011-12 till date.

The national average PLF of coal- and lignite-based power generation stations stood at 73.32% in 2011-12 but fell to 69.93% in 2012-13 and further to 65.55% in 2013-14, Goyal said.

Efforts are being made to make gas available to the power sector and thrust has been put on increasing domestic coal production and import of coal for meeting the shortfall in domestic coal as part of efforts to improve PLF of thermal plants, he said.