Ministry asked to ramp up coal supply to power plants
Amid a looming power crisis, as stocks of coal in power plants have fallen to unprecedentedly low levels and States warning of power blackout, the Ministry of Power has issued directions to NTPC Ltd and Damodar Valley Corporation to supply as much power as available to Delhi.
This has been done keeping in view the Declared Capacity offered to Delhi power distribution companies (discoms) in the last 10 days. Coal stocks in power plants have fallen to low levels, and States have warned of blackout and a power crisis.
The Ministry has also issued guidelines to ensure the States do not misuse electricity allocated from coal-based power stations of Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs).
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Office (PMO) on Tuesday reviewed the coal supply at thermal power plants across the country. At the meeting, Power Secretary Alok Kumar and Coal Secretary AK Jain made a presentation on coal and power availability, sources said, adding that ways to increase transportation of coal were also discussed during the meeting.
The Coal Ministry has been asked to ramp up the supply of coal while the Railways has been asked to make available rakes to transport the fuel to power plants, sources said.
According to sources, States have been forced to buy power from exchanges at high rates to meet demand. According to sources, Modi is expected to hold a meeting soon on the coal issue.
Coal India Ltd has been asked to augment the coal supply to power producers to 1.55-1.6 million tonnes per day this week and to further scale it up to 1.7 million tonnes daily after October 20.
At the same, taking note of the Delhi Government’s claims of possible power crisis due to coal shortage, the Power Ministry issued directions saying, “Keeping in view the Declared Capacity (DC) offered to the Delhi DISCOMs, the, Ministry of Power has issued instructions on 10.10.2021 to NTPC and DVC as under so as to secure power supply to Delhi Discoms as per their allocations made to them under the respective power purchase agreements.”
Following the directives of the Central Government, NTPC and DVC have agreed to provide Delhi with a steady supply of power. The gas available from all sources including SPOT, LT-RLNG etc may be included while offering the DC to Delhi discoms.
NTPC on Tuesday tweeted along with data for 11 days till October 11, 2021 that it has been making available required power for Delhi.
As the data shows (1st October to 11th October), Delhi DISCOMs have been scheduling only 70 per cent of power that has been made available by the NTPC. The discoms in the city scheduled (or got supply of) 38.81 million units (MU) against the 54.83 MU declared capacity entitlement (or made available by the NTPC).
The Ministry has also came out with a fact sheet on the power supply situation in Delhi saying the maximum demand of Delhi was 4,536 MW (peak) and 96.2 MU (Energy) on October 10, 2021. It further added that there was no outage on account of power shortage, as the required amount of power was supplied to them. It said in the last two weeks, there was not a single day, when the Delhi’s power requirement was not met by the Centre.
As per its data, on October 10, energy requirement in the National Capital was 96.2 MU and the availability was 96.2 MU, while the peak demand was 4,536 MW and it was fully met.
Likewise on October 9, the energy requirement was 96.9 MU and the availability was also 96.9 MU. The peak demand was 4,569 MW and it was again met. On October 8, the peak demand was 4,839 MW and it was met by the Centre.
It is to be noted that on October 5, Delhi’s energy need was 112.4 MU and the availability was also 112.4 MU. The demand had surged to a level of 5,189 MW and this was also met.
The decision to allocate power to the national Capital has been announced a day after Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said Delhi will soon be on the verge of a power crisis due to the acute shortage of coal in the national Capital. He also wrote to Modi, asking for intervention in the matter.
The Government has issued guidelines to ensure they States do not misuse electricity allocated from coal-based power stations of Central PSUs. In a separate order, the Ministry warned that if any State is found selling power in power exchange or not scheduling this unallocated power, their unallocated power may be temporarily reduced or withdrawn and reallocated to other States which are in need of such power.
Under these guidelines, the States have been requested to use the unallocated power for supplying electricity to the consumers of the State; and in case of surplus power, the States are requested to intimate so that this power can be reallocated to other needy State, it said
