Thermal Plants With Critical Coal Stocks Rise To 27 In May
As of May 3, the total coal-based power plants with critical coal or where coal stock is less than 25% of normative requirement has risen to 27 from 21 a month back.
The number of thermal power plants with critical coal stocks has seen a marginal increase in May with soaring temperatures across the country. As of May 3, the total coal-based power plants with critical coal or where coal stock is less than 25% of normative requirement has risen to 27 from 21 a month back.
Of the 27 power plants around 19 are based on domestic coal, five are based on imported coal, and three plants are based on washery rejects, Central Etecticity Authority data showed.
The actual coal stock position compared to normative requirement at over 184 thermal power plants is also lower at 68% compared with 72% a month back. The coal stock position at pit head power plants dropped to 70% on May 3 from 91% a month back.
The coal stock at 17 imported coal-based power plants has also slipped to 42% of the normative requirement from 54% a month back. Although, the plant load factor of imported coal-based plants has risen to 69% in May from 63% a month back the coal stock has fallen. The PLF of 1200 MW Salaya Power plant of Essar Group has dropped to 35% from 43% a month back.
India’s total coal stock including domestic and imported coal is around 4,77,87,000 tonnes while the normative requirement that all the plants put together should have to maintain 26 days stock is 6,57,71,000 tonnes.
Daily requirement of all plants put together is 29,07,000 tonnes that puts the coal stocks of 4,77,87,000 tonnes good enough to last for 14.4 days, that is lower compared to 17 days a month back
Indian government has taken various steps to meet the rising power demand which is expected to breach 260 GW on increased economic activities this summer compared with 243GW reached in September last year.
Government has mandated running all imported coal-based plants on full capacity till October 15 apart from mandatory blending of imported coal with domestic coal-based power plants to meet the shortage of coal in the country due to lack of rakes to transport coal.
Government has also directed gas-based power plants which were lying idle to run on full capacity to meet the domestic demand of power. There were supposed to be 20,000 MW of gas based power plants that were not used to full potential. It is expected around 16,000 MW can still be revived now.
