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Coal stocks still low, Delhi-NCR face blackouts
The Delhi-NCR region and large parts of India could be headed for another power crisis, unless the government can find a solution on a war footing.
The Delhi-NCR region and large parts of India could be headed for another power crisis, unless the government can find a solution on a war footing.
India’s largest thermal power generation company NTPC has written to Coal India Ltd (CIL) that 11 of its plants — accounting for 23.880 MW of the company’s total capacity of 43,000 MW — have only four days of coal stocks left.
Among these are the Dadri, Rihand and Singrauli plants that supply about 60% of Delhi’s daily power requirement of 5,000 MW.
“Due to coal shortages, seven units have been shut down... several units at various NTPC stations are running facing coal shortages,” NTPC said in an August 18 letter to CIL, a copy of which is with HT. “Any further disruption of coal supplies can adversely affect power generation at these stations,” said a senior NTPC official.
Minister of state for power and coal Piyush Goyal told HT, “We are trying to push for coal supplies from Coal India… Due to deficient monsoon, hydro power supply is down. To bridge the shortfall and to avoid shortages, we had to step up thermal generation, leading to higher demand for coal.”
Among other states that may face a power crisis in case of further coal supply disruptions are Haryana, UP, Punjab, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, J&K, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
