Coal news and updates

Slight rise in water storage levels at key India reservoirs

October 31: The water storage available at 85 important reservoirs in India stood at 114.345 BCM as on October 30, slightly up from 114.267 BCM as on October 22, but down 15% from the storage level of the corresponding period of last year, an official release said on October 31.

Industry sources said, improvement in the water level at important reservoirs might have helped in generation of higher volumes 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 30 was 74% of the total storage capacity of the reservoirs of 155.046 BCM, same as on October 22 and 74% as on October 16 and 77% as on October 9.

The Central Water Commission monitors live storage status of 85 important reservoirs in 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 12.92 BCM, slightly up from 12.44 BCM as on October 22 and 13.82 BCM as on October 16.

In the eastern region’s 15 reservoirs in Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Tripura , with storage capacity of 18.83 BCM, had a level of 15.43 BCM as on October 31 against 15.50 BCM as on October 22 and 14.80 BCM as on October 16.

The 22 reservoirs in the two western region states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, with total storage capacity of 24.54 BCM, had available storage levels of 18.31 BCM as on October 31 against 18.73 BCM as on October 22 and 18.86 BCM as on October 16.

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 level of 34.44 BCM as on October 31 against 34.75 BCM as on October 22 and 34.67 BCM as on October 16.

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 a level of 33.25 BCM as on October 31, up from 32.85 BCM as on October 22 and 34.09 BCM as on October 16.

The release said that as on October 30, the states having better storage than last year for the corresponding period was Tamil Nadu.

On October 22, the states having better storage levels compared to the corresponding period of last year were Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu.

The states having lesser storage levels, as on October 30, compared to the corresponding period last year were Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Tripura, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.