Date:20/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/20/stories/2008072053920400.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Coal shortage may hit power generation

N. Rahul

The stock at the five major power plants in State will last only three days

HYDERABAD: An alert has been sounded as thermal power stations in the State reported ‘super critical’ position of coal stocks on the ground.

With just about 1.5 lakh tonnes of coal at the five major power plants in the State on Saturday, authorities feel the situation could be salvaged only if coal was brought from Mahanadi coal fields in Orissa. They said the available stock at the five stations would last only three days.

S. Narsing Rao, Chairman and Managing Director of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), told The Hindu that the company itself had two lakh tonnes on its pit heads which amounted to a single day’s stock together for all the power houses. On the contrary, he said seven million tonnes of coal was available at the mines of Mahanadi coal fields in Talcher and IB Valley. The coal could be shifted in a big way from there by organising rail rakes as a special case.

Coal linkages

Mr. Rao said though 43 million tonnes of coal was also available at the mines of Coal India Limited, transportation of stocks from these far off places might not be viable.

The SCCL is in no position to step up supply to the power stations within the State at this stage as it also has coal linkages with the power stations at Parli and Raichur in Maharashtra and Karnataka respectively. It meets 72 per cent of the requirements of the power sector within and outside State. The remaining production is used for other sectors, mainly captive power plants and cement. The company has a linkage to supply 26.5 million tonnes to the power plants in 2008-09.

The situation was not as bad at the 2600 MW super thermal power station of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) at Ramagundam as, apart from SCCL, it also gets coal from Mahanadi, Western Coal Fields and South Eastern Coal Fields. The station had a ground stock of 98,000 tonnes on Saturday.

Mr. Rao denied reports that the coal prices were set for a hike. He said there was only a ten per cent increase in price in October last year after 40 months.