NTPC, the largest thermal power producer in the country has two day's stock left in its power plants. Six plants of NTPC with capacity of 17,000 MW are running on low stock and out of 100 thermal plants, 27 plants running on coal stock available for 4 days or even less than that.
Six plants of NTPC, which have a combined capacity of 16,840 megawatts or 15 percent of India's total energy capacity from coal-fired plants, might be in deep trouble since the monsoons generally dirupt supply of mined coal from the mines to the plants. "With the ensuing monsoon, it will become more difficult to replenish the coal stocks and in case of even a small disruption, the total power generation at these stations will be adversely affected," NTPC Chairman Arup Roy Choudhury wrote in a July 14 letter to the Ministry of Power.
News reports suggest that the government is asking coal rich states like Orissa and Jharkhand to quickly arrange for coal to be transported.
Coal India has suffered for quite sometime trying to supply coal to power plants. The government had asked Coal India to first deliver its commitment to NTPC instead of the private power producers. Coal India seems to be failing there too as not enough railway rakes are available for transportation of coal.
Coal imports in India have gone up giving further trouble to the sector and the finance minister this year gave a 10% cut in coal import duty to power producers to provide some relief.
Reuters reported, "As of July 14, a total of 44 plants, including the super critical ones, have "critical" coal stocks - only sufficient for less than a week - with the majority of these in the state of Maharashtra, the home of India's financial capital Mumbai, Central Electricity Authority data shows."
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