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New UserState govt seeks to double coal supply from Centre
25 Mar 2015
The Samajwadi Party's decision to come on board the BJP-led NDA government ship to support the coal mine bill in the upper house last week was not without reason. By supporting the bill, the ruling party in UP rolled out its elaborate plans to get coal supply to state-owned power plants doubled, in a desperate attempt to give the much-needed fillip to the crucial sector.
Documents accessed by TOI show that the state government has now bid for 690 million tonnes of coal for a period of 30 years. This translates into 23 million tonnes per year. At present, state-owned power plants already have allocation for 22.4 million tonnes of coal per year. With the additional bid, the state government expects coal supply to get doubled when new units come up in the next five years.
"The bid has been done considering a plant load factor of 85%. The power plants will be new and therefore burn out coal in large quantities while wheeling out power into the state grid," said a senior official in the UP Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited, while speaking to TOI.
The new power plants for which the additional coal allocation has been sought by UP government include the 610-MW Panki, 660-MW Hardruaganj, 1,320-MW Jawaharpur and 1,320-MW Obra C projects.
"We expect the coal realization to be better than what we have been getting for our older power plants," said the official.
The official, however, refused to divulge details as to where the state government has bid for coal, citing the competitiveness factor. UP has been getting coal from Jharkhand, Odisha and Western Coal Fields in Nagpur.
The fresh move further arms the SP government to showcase its commitment in necessitating a power overhaul before the next assembly elections due in 2017.
UP's power plants have been facing a severe coal crisis following which power generation has been on a down slide. In fact, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has been quite vocal in blaming the Centre for the poor coal situation in UP. The crisis has repeatedly led to tripping of power plants eventually resulting in acute power crisis across the state, forcing authorities to resort to prolonged rostering, ostensibly in rural areas.
The crisis had further aggravated during the coal employees strike last year after which Akhilesh Yadav asked the officials of the energy department to assess the situation on a daily basis and inform the Centre, even through social media.