With irregular coal supply, Maharashtra staring at power outages in coming days

The coal stocks at some thermal power stations of the Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (MahaGenco) have fallen to levels that can last a day or two.

Mumbai: After an hour-long disruption in power supply in Mumbai on Sunday, the state may also be staring at load shedding in the coming days due to low inventories of coal. Officials said that supply bottlenecks had affected their capacity to create a buffer stock of coal for monsoon when coal supply is affected.

The official attributed the shortage of railway rakes and explosives (which are used by coal mines) as the reasons for the short supply. (Reuters)

The coal stocks at some thermal power stations of the Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (MahaGenco) have fallen to levels that can last a day or two. Coal-based thermal power accounts for the bulk of the power generated by MahaGenco. The state-owned electricity generation utility has an installed capacity of 13,602 MW, of which a bulk (9,540 MW) is fired by coal.

“There is a large-scale shortage of coal. We have coal stocks to last a day or half a day. If this (coal shortage) widens, the generation of electricity will fall, leading to load shedding,” said energy minister Nitin Raut.

Raut also called on consumers to pay electricity bills in time and added that default in payments had precipitated a financial crisis.

The situation is better at Khaparkheda (12 days), Chandrapur and Koradi (six days) and Paras (four-and-half days). On Sunday, MahaGenco had a stock of 6.75 lakh metric tons (MT).

The utility needs around 1.38 lakh MT coal to run its generating stations at full capacity every day. However, since around 7,000 MW capacity is being utilised, about 1.25 lakh MT coal is being utilised. The MahaGenco gets a bulk of its coal supply (60 percent) from the Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) followed by the South Eastern Coalfields (SECL) and Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL).

“This is part of a nationwide issue that power generators are facing. We are getting enough to generate electricity for now, but are unable to build up stocks for the monsoon when supply is affected and wet coal from open cast mines is received,” said a MahaGenco official. Wet coal cannot be immediately used for power generation.

He further said that as part of their protocol, the utility builds up a buffer stock for the rainy season by creating a daily inventory of around 10,000 to 15,000 metric tons a day since November. Over around 200 days, this helps build up a 20 lakh metric tons stockpile to help tide over any possible supply disruptions in the monsoons.

The official attributed the shortage of railway rakes and explosives (which are used by coal mines) as the reasons for the short supply. “We are trying to get extra coal via agreements and the RCR (road-cum-rail) mode and some quantity is also being imported,” the official explained.

Another MahaGenco official said that while the power demand in the state was gradually growing due to a rise in mercury, the coal supply had failed to keep pace with it. “We are generating between 6,500 to 7,000 MW using coal-fired plants and meeting the morning and evening peak demand by around 2,000 MW hydropower generation,” he added.