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| Edited By: Neeraj Thakur |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 18, 2018, 02:30 AM IST
Coal shortage could force the power plants commissioned during 2009-10 to operate at a plant load factor (PLF) of as low as 40%, the power ministry has warned.
Power plants typically function at PLFs of over 80%. NTPC, in fact, maintains PLF at over 90% for its power plants.
“The coal shortage is increasing every year and the coal availability for power plants will have to be reduced if supply does not increase over the next few months. Power plants that are coming on stream in 2011-12 will also have to be given some coal,” a power ministry official said.
Power plants with capacities totalling 5,593 mw were commissioned during 2009-10, all of them dependent on coal linkage from Coal India Ltd. Of these, four projects with a total capacity of 1,740 mw were from the central sector — three from NTPC (Kahalgaon, Bhilai Extn, TPP and NCP project stage-2) and one from Damodar Valley Corporation. Eleven projects with a total capacity of 3,079 mw were from the state sector, while three projects — Gautami CCCP, Konaseema CCCP and Lanco Kondapalli phase-2 — with a total capacity of 774 mw were from the private sector.
In a presentation made to the Group of Ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee on “no go” areas last Thursday, the power ministry had said that there was a gap of just 2 million tonne in coal supply in 2008-09 for thermal power plants, which has increased to 30 million tonne in 2010-11.
The demand-supply gap is expected to widen further this fiscal.
“It takes about 8-9 months for a newly commissioned power plants to start consuming coal at its peak capacity. While the coal shortage started in 2009-10, it would be visible in the performance of the power plants from this financial year,” the official said.
At the beginning of the plan, the government had set a target of adding 78,000 mw, which the ministry revised down to 62,000 mw during the mid-term appraisal.
Latest estimates suggest a further downward revision of the target. For the record, only 12,160 mw capacity was added during 2010-11, as against the targeted 20,359 mw.
