Coal news and updates

Slight fall in water storage levels at key India reservoirs

October 8: The water storage available at 85 important reservoirs in India stood at 121.396 BCM as on October 1, slightly down from 123.260 BCM as on September 25, 2014, but down 9% from the storage level of the corresponding period of last year, an official release said on October 1.

Industry sources said, the improvement in water level in important reservoirs might have helped in generation of higher volume of hydro power thereby putting less pressure on coal-fired power as these would have to generate less, which would augur well at a time when most of the thermal plants are facing critical coal stock situations.

The storage on October 1 was 78% of the total storage capacity of the reservoirs of 155.046 BCM as against 79.49% of the capacity as on September 25, 79% of the capacity on September 18 and 77% of the capacity as on September 11.

The Central Water Commission monitors live storage status of 85 important reservoirs of the country on a weekly basis.

These reservoirs include 37 having hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 MW. The total storage capacity of these reservoirs is 155.046 BCM which is about 61% of the storage capacity of 253.388 BCM which is estimated to have been created in the country.

The 6 reservoirs in the northern region’s Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan, with storage capacity of 18.01 BCM, had storage of 14.64 BCM as on October 1 against 14.86 BCM as on September 25 and 15.38 BCM as on September 18.

In the eastern region’s 15 reservoirs in Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Tripura, the storage was 15.42 BCM on October 1 against 15.45 BCM on September 25 and 14.61 BCM as on September 18. These reservoirs had a total storage capacity of 18.83 BCM.

The 22 reservoirs in the two western region states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, with total storage capacity of 24.54 BCM, had available storage of 20.03 BCM as on October 1, slightly down from a volume of 20.37 BCM as on September 25 and 20.12 BCM as on September 18.

The 12 reservoirs in the four central region states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, which have total storage capacity of 42.30 BCM, had a storage level of 35.02 BCM as on October 1 from 35.68 as on September 25 and 37.28 BCM on September 18.

Similarly, the 30 reservoirs in the southern region states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which had total storage capacity of 51.37 BCM, had storage level of 36.29 BCM as on October 1 from 36.92 BCM on September 25 and 37.28 BCM as on September 18.

The release said that as on October 1, the states having better storage than last year for the corresponding period were Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

On September 25, the states having better storage than last year for the corresponding period were Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh

The states having lesser storage than last year, as on October 1, from the corresponding period were Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Tripura, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala,  Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.