Coal power generation outage down to 6 GW from 11, says ministry

The government statement comes against the backdrop of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) drawing up a plan to ensure uninterrupted fuel supplies to power plants amid some states raising concerns that that depleted coal stocks at power plants may lead to blackouts.

The coal-based electricity generation outage came down to 6 GW on Wednesday from 11 GW a day earlier, the power ministry said in an official statement. The government statement comes against the backdrop of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) drawing up a plan to ensure uninterrupted fuel supplies to power plants amid some states raising concerns that depleted stocks at power plants may lead to blackouts.

Earlier in the day, coal minister Pralhad Joshi said cumulative coal supplies to thermal power plants crossed 2 million tonne on Tuesday and dispatch of the dry fuel is being enhanced to the plants. (REUTERS)

“The Power System Operation Corporation Ltd (POSOCO) reported that the total capacity of units under outage due to low coal stocks has reduced from 11 GW on October 12 to 6 GW on October 13,” the ministry said.

Earlier in the day, coal minister Pralhad Joshi said cumulative coal supplies to thermal power plants crossed 2 million tonne on Tuesday and dispatch of the dry fuel is being enhanced to the plants.

“I don’t want to do politics over this. We have already been meeting the total requirement. Today, the requirement is 1.1 million tonnes of coal for power generation and we have already supplied two million tonnes. The stock is also rising because of it. I assure that there will be no problem in meeting the supply for power generation in the country,” he said.

“It has been observed that some states are not supplying power to their consumers and imposing load shedding in some areas. At the same time, they are also selling power in the power exchange at a high price,” read the letter signed by deputy secretary, GoI, Devashis Bose, without naming any state.