There were fears of power outages in the festive season because of critical coal shortage at power plants, especially when spot power price touched a peak of over Rs 10 per unit earlier this week.
New Delhi : Allaying fears of electricity outages on the eve of Diwali, the Power Ministry said a detailed plan has been implemented from Wednesday to ensure sufficient supply of coal to power plants. There were fears of power outages in the festive season because of critical coal shortage at power plants, especially when spot power price touched a peak of over Rs 10 per unit earlier this week. According to a Central Electricity Authority (CEA) daily report, as many as 22 plants had coal for less than four days while four had stocks for less than a week, as on October 16.
The CEA monitors coal stock situation at 112 thermal power plants. “A detailed plan has been agreed which would be implemented from October 18, 2017 and would ensure sufficient supply of coal to power plants,” a Power Ministry statement said.
According to the statement, Power Minister R K Singh and Railways and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal Wednesday jointly reviewed the status and also spoke to concerned states, which have requested for enhanced supply of coal. They also noted that supply to states like Maharashtra has improved and efforts will be made to improve the coal stock in all the power stations with low stocks. The ministry said that the issue of coal supply to power plants is being addressed in a co-coordinated manner by the three concerned ministries — power, coal and railways.
It was also agreed during the meeting that the issues with some Damodar Valley Corporation power plants which are affected due to closure of railway line would be resolved expeditiously.
