CHENNAI: Tangedco is planning to use conglomerate JSW’s coal terminals in Odisha’s Paradip and Tamil Nadu’s Ennore ports to transport additional loads of coal to meet summer demand at its thermal power plants. Discussions to this end are on, according to a senior Tangedco official.
According to a source in Tangedco, it takes 72,000 tonnes of coal a day to operate the State’s five coal-based thermal power plants, which meet the bulk of the State’s power demand. For this, coal would be extracted from Coal India corporation’s mines and shipped to Tamil Nadu via Odisha’s Paradip port.
“Tangedco has one terminal each at Paradip and Ennore ports to dump coal. Ten ships, each with a capacity of 55,000-70,000 tonnes, are used by the utility to transport coal from Odisha. It will take over 35 hours to load 55,000 tonnes of coal at Paradip port,” he added. The ship would take several days to reach Ennore port, where unloading would take many more hours still.
Since demand for coal would skyrocket during summer, the utility thought it would be wise to utilise more coal terminals for loading and unloading. Speaking to TNIE, a senior Tangedco official said: “As of now, we get only 60 per cent of coal of our coal demand. It is, however, possible to bring more coal once Tangedco begins to use JSW’s coal terminals.” The official said that Tangedco has sought JSW’s permission to use their terminals for April and May and that the utility expected an approval by March end.