India: Thermal plants face coal shortage

More than 60 per cent of India’s coal-based power plants are running with less than a week’s consumption of coal, threatening to affect power availability at a time when India’s peak deficit is hovering at around 15 per cent.

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the apex power sector planning body, said in its latest report that 50 out of 81 thermal power plants in India are having stocks less than 7 days of consumption in September, the latest period for which data are available. This is the highest number of plants having stocks below the critical level in recent times.
The CEA report cited non-receipt of coal, inadequate linkage and higher generation, as well as law and order problems as reasons for the current situation.

“The situation is getting worse,” said Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh, referring to supply of coal to the power stations. In some cases stock level has gone down to even two to three days, he added.

Experts of the industry believe that this worsening situation of coal availability at thermal power stations might lead to serious concerns for the power industry in the future.

“Coal sector is moving at a much slower pace than the power sector. The supply crisis will result in a major hit to future power projects because of a negative impact on the supply situation. The impact will be more on private power developers who have been assigned projects but have not yet linked fuel supply,” said Kuljit Singh, partner, Ernst & Young.

Business Standard