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New UserCoal stocks reach critical limits amid rising demand
02 Sep 2014
Availability of coal at India's thermal power stations has fallen to a critical level, with stocks barely enough to last six days.
About 9,000 Mw of commissioned power plants have had to be shut due to nonavailability to coal, over and above the 11,000 Mw of new generation capacity that is lying idle for want of the fuel, officials said.
According to Central Electricity Authority (CEA), all power plants need to stock coal for at least two weeks. If coal stocks at any plant fall below the amount needed for seven days, the situation is considered 'critical'.
If the stocks fall below the requirement for three days, it is 'super critical'. The situation has turned 'super critical' at about 27 thermal power plants, with availability of stocks ranging for just onethree days, according to data published by the CEA.
"This has forced a large number of power plants to run at sub-optimal levels to barely keep the boilers running," said a senior official of staterun power producer NTPC, requesting anonymity.
Coal stocks at power plants have declined to about 9 million tonnes from a high of about 19 million tonnes in April. Demand has, however, increased by about 10,000 Mw or 8% over the past one month.
"Coal stocks in power plant are at critically low levels and power prices at exchanges are inching up once again. Power prices during peak period had touched Rs 11 per unit a few days ago, before coming down. Average price is hovering at around Rs 5 per unit," said a senior power official.
The supply of coal, which is used to fire most of the country's power plants, has not improved, NTPCBSE -0.68 % officials said.
They added that despatches from Central Coalfields had dwindled also due to reduced availability of wagons and road transport as well, besides the impact of floods to an extent.
Source: ET