Power plants grapple with coal shortage

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Power plants in the country continue to grapple with coal shortage as 19 stations suffered acute scarcity, with only four days of fuel stock, last week.

As per the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) data (April 19), 19 power plants spread across all the four regions of the country had less than 4 days of coal stock.

However, some plants in the northern region faced grave coal stock position or coal reserves for less than four days, on account of inadequate fuel allocation.

Power stations in the southern and western India also received less fuel supply, the report said.

State-run NTPC's thermal power projects at Kahalgaon in Bihar and Farakka in West Bengal suffered due to inadequate coal allocation, it said.

Interestingly, the company's Simhadri project in Andhra Pradesh witnessed acute fuel shortage due to higher generation from the station.

Meanwhile, over 30 power stations witnessed coal stock position of less than seven days. These plants do not include those 19 stations with less than 4-day stock.

While there has been no change in the situation of plants with less than seven days stock, the number of stations facing less than 4-day supply has gone down from 25, last month.

Power Ministry has set a target of generating 9,20,000 million units of electricity during 2012-13, of which over 1,50,000 million units is expected to come from the private sector alone.

It has plans to add over 7,60,000 million units of coal-based power during the period.

The government would add over 1,22,000 million units of hydel power during 2012-13, of which nearly 60,000 million units would come from the northern part of the country.

It would also import over 5,000 million units of hydro power from Bhutan to bridge the shortfall.