Amid a potential power crisis in the national capital, Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain on Friday urged the Centre to ensure the availability of coal by getting the train racks repaired for smoother and timely transportation of coal to the power generating plants. He further said that the power plants in Delhi cannot function with the coal backup of one day. However, the NTPC
Addressing a press conference, Satyendar Jain said that the country was facing a severe power crisis due to a lack of coal availability, as there was no backup available with power plants for this. “In normal circumstances, (for smooth supply of energy) coal should be available with the power generating plants as a backup for 21 days. However, today there are many plants in the country that do not have a backup of coal even for a day,” Jain claimed.
He said that the current peak for power demand in Delhi was 6,000 MW.
On being asked about arrangements for power supply in hospitals, the power minister said, “We will look at how and where to adjust it, but I would urge the government to get these tracks fixed so that the coal can be transported easily, which is a better solution.”
“There is no payment pending from the Delhi government. It can be possible that the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have not made their payments,” he claimed.
As per the Delhi government, in NTPC’s Dadri-II power plant, only a day’s worth of stock is left, and in Jhajjar (Aravalli), only 7-8 days’ worth of stock is left. The Dadri-II, Unchahar, Kahalgaon, Farakka and Jhajjar power plants in Delhi supply 1,751 MW of electricity per day.
However, the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Limited in a series of tweets said Dadri and Unchahar power plants were running at full capacity and receiving regular coal supplies.
“Currently Unchahar and Dadri stations are declaring more than 100 per cent rated capacity to the grid. All units of Unchahar and Dadri are running at full load except Unchahar Unit 1, which is under annual planned overhaul,” the NTPC said in a tweet.
The NTPC further said that present stock is 140,000 MT and 95,000 MT respectively and imported coal supplies are also in the pipeline.
“All 6 Units of Dadri and 5 Units of Unchahar are running at full capacity and receiving regular coal supplies. Present stock is 140000 MT and 95000 MT respectively and import coal supplies are also in pipeline,” it added.
IN JHARKHAND
Suffering continuous hours of a power outage for the past several days, daily life and business of the locals have halted in Jharkhand’s Ranchi.
The Managing Director (MD)-Chairman of the Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), P.M. Prasad said that they have reviewed the production of CCL and Eastern Coalfield Limited (ECL). “We (CCL) have been given a target to provide 2.20 lakhs tonnes of coal per day to the power plants. ECL has asked to provide 75,000 tonnes of coal,” said P.M. Prasad.
“Currently, we have a coal stock of 6.6 million tonnes, of which 2 lakh tonnes are distributed every day, so our stock will last up to 30 days,” he added.
SHORTAGE IN BIHAR
Acknowledging power shortage across the state, Bihar’s Power Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said on Thursday that a power shortage of around 1,000 Megawatt (MW) power will be resolved in a day or two.
“A power supply shortage of around 1000MW is presently going on in the state and it will be resolved in a day or two,” said Yadav. Adding further Yadav said, “there is some problem all over the country and in Bihar. We are taking steps to overcome them.”
According to Yadav, a unit of Navinagar that started running on Thursday is capable of supplying approximately 500-600 MW power.
HARYANA CM MEETS UNION POWER MINISTER
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar met Union Minister of Power R.K. Singh on Friday and discussed various measures to ensure uninterrupted power supply in Haryana.
“CM of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar met me and discussed issues of the Power sector of Haryana. It was agreed that 300 MW from Kameng Hydro Electric project will be supplied to Haryana,” Singh said in a tweet.
According to the Ministry of Power, the Haryana Chief Minister said that his government would take necessary action to revive generation from the power plants with which it has PPA and this will start in three days.
Meanwhile, Indian Railways has decided to cancel 657 train trips to speed up the movement of coal rakes to power plants.
As many as 509 mail/express train trips/services and 148 MEMU train services have been cancelled. A total of 533 coal rakes were put on duty, said a railway official.
For the power sector, 427 rakes were loaded yesterday. 1.62 million tonnes of coal were loaded for the power sector. “The cancellation of trains is an interim measure. We are reviewing the situation on a daily basis. Train cancellation has been done in non-priority sectors and less busy routes,” said a Railway official.
The services of the mail, express or local passenger trains will resume once the coal storage in power plants normalises.