Regulation of coal supply to power plants that have more than 15 days of fuel stock will free up around 1.77 lakh tonnes of coal from 26 stations, said the power ministry.
Power Secretary Alok Kumar on Sunday reviewed the report of the core management team (CMT) to ensure daily close monitoring of coal stock position at thermal power plants (TPPs), the power ministry said in a statement.
CMT comprises representatives from the power ministry, Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Coal India Ltd (CIL) and Railways.
During the meeting, some facts emerged which will ease out the coal stock position at TPPs and will ensure uninterrupted power supply.
Firstly, it stated, the regulation of the coal to the power plants having more than 15 days' stock would free up around 1.77 lakh tone of coal from 26 stations.
This coal has been redistributed to the plants having supercritical and critical coal stocks at power plants.
NTPC Daralipali (2 x 800 MW) plant is getting coal supply from captive mine of Odisha Coal and Power Ltd (OCPL), it stated.
The second unit of NTPC Daralipali will achieve commercial operation from 0000 hrs of September 1, and thus additional 800 megawatt (MW) generation would be added in the total fleet.
Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) will clear dues to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore to the different CIL subsidiaries within a week, which will augment the coal supply to different plants of DVC. This would ramp up the power generation from DVC plants from the current level of 61 per cent to a PLF (plant load factor) of 90 per cent.
The 1,000-MW Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant would be back on bar before September 2 and replace some portion of coal generation, thereby reducing pressure on coal requirements, it stated.
Around 6,000 MW capacity of thermal power plants at western coast at Mundra designed on imported coal have around 30 days of coal stock and are not supplying power due to power purchage agreement (PPA)-related issues.
A meeting will take place on Monday by the Ministry of Power to resolve the issues, so that power from these units can contribute to the overall generation to ease pressure on domestic coal requirement, it added.
NLC India has confirmed that the lignite production from its mines at Neyveli is going on well and a 500-MW unit at Neyveli, which was under shut down, shall be back in service from September 1, it stated.
NLC India will be ready to generate more than 90 per cent of its capacity, it added.
One more unit of 250 MW, which is currently under annual overhauling, will be ready to be synchronised by September 10, after which all units will be available for generation achieving about 92 per cent PLF.
The current production of lignite from NLC mines is to the tune of 85,000 tonnes per day and it can further augment its production as per requirements, it added.
CMT is closely monitoring the coal stocks on a daily basis and ensuring follow-up actions with CIL and Railways to improve the coal supply to power plants, the ministry said.
