Even as the fate of 218 coal blocks - whose allotment was declared as “illegal” by the Supreme Court earlier this week - hangs in balance as speculations regarding their cancellation are rife, the country’s northern region on Thursday reported a power supply shortfall of over 5,000 mw mainly owing to depleting coal stocks in power plants across States like Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi.
This happened a day after the western region had on August 27 faced a shortfall of around 7,000 mw of power supply, again owing to poor coal reserves. In fact Adani Power had to shut down around six of its generating units at its 4,620 mw Mundra plant in Gujarat.
Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal on his part blamed “rampant corruption and lopsided policies” of the previous UPA Government for the coal shortage that has impacted power generation in the country.
Tata Power had to close down its two generating units at its 4,000 mw Mundra ultra mega power plant (UMPP) due to technical issues.
National Thermal Power Corporation ltd (NTPC) also had to shut down its four units of 890 mw capacity on August 27 owing to coal shortage.
On the same day, the peak power shortfall - deficit in electricity supply when demand is at its maximum - was 5,572 mw at 2000 hours, according to the latest report by the Northern Region load Despatch Centre (NRlDC). It is the apex body to ensure integrated operation of the power system in the northern region.
The total electricity requirement of the region during that time was 50,173 MW of which 4,4601 MW was met.
The poor coal supply at various power stations across the country is mainly due to the fact that Coal India ltd (CIl, which is responsible for augmenting 80 per cent of the country’s supplies) has failed to maintain the demand-supply cycle of plants.
With the Supreme Court set to announce its final verdict on the coal blocks allocation scam on September 1, the entire power as well as coal sector would be waiting with bated breath for its observation, as in case the blocks (218 of them issued between 1993 and 2010) are cancelled, then it could lead to a full blown power crisis.
Reacting to the situation, Goyal said, “our coal production during the past five years has not gone up at all, while demand for coal has increased by almost 50 percent. Power generation has also increased during this period. Thanks to rampant corruption and the lopsided policies of the past Government, we have come to a position which did not allow coal mines to open and raise production.”
Meanwhile in a separate report dated August 26 by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), nearly one-fourth of the country’s 100 thermal power projects were shown to have fuel stocks to last less than four days.
Actual electricity withdrawal by all the north Indian states exceeded the demand even then these states were unable to meet their electricity requirement during that period.
The off peak power demand in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Chandigarh, recorded at 0300 hours was 48,959 mw of which 45,173 mw was met, leaving the region with a shortage of 3,786 mw.
According to latest information on the website of NRlDC, high demand is prevailing in the northern region system due to reduced availability.
Of the 27 power projects which have less than four days of coal reserves, six are in the northern region. These six plants also include state-run NTPC’s Indira Gandhi thermal power project at Jhajjar in Haryana, Rihand and Singruali plants in Uttar Pradesh, the CEA report said. Singrauli has two days of stock where as Jhajjar and Rihand have only one day of stock left.