The Union Ministry of Coal has decided to restore the tapering linkage coal supply from Mahanadi Coalfields limited (MCl) to two units of Nalco’s Captive Power Plant (CPP) at Angul.
This was announced by Nalco CMD Tapan Kumar Chand on Wednesday at the 12th Annual Function of Nalco Employees’ Forum (NEF), here.
“We are thankful to Ministry of Mines, which strongly recommended our case before Ministry of Coal,” Chand said.
Elaborating on the good news, Chand said that out of 10 units of Nalco’s 1,200 MW CPP, till now the company had been assured of supply of 47.16 lakh tonnes of coal per annum, as per Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) with the MCl, for 8 units only. For unit 9 and 10, there was tapering linkage supply of 10.93 lakh tonnes of coal per annum, which was linked to Utkal E coal block allotted to Nalco. This linkage supply had stopped since 2011. With the fresh allotment of Utkal D and E coal blocks by the Centre, having a reserve in excess of 200 million tonnes, in the vicinity of CPP, which would take about a couple of years for raising coal, the Ministry of Coal has decided to restore the tapering linkage. This shall greatly increase power supply to Nalco’s Smelter located adjacent to its CPP, resulting in operation of more pots to smelt aluminium.
Appreciating the proactive role played by Nalco’s Workers’ Unions, including NEF, Chand described the union leaders as hard-core managers. Nalco collective has been trying to achieve business excellence through productivity, profitability and credibility, he said.