BHUBANESWAR: As coal production from Dulanga coal mine is falling short of the annual target set by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), the power major has requested the Ministry of Coal for extension of bridge linkage for its Darlipalli thermal power station in Sundargarh district.
The pit head-based thermal power plant sources its requirement of fossil fuel from the captive Dulanga coal mines allocated to NTPC in 2015. With a daily requirement of about 25,000 tonnes, the Dulanga mine has the capacity to meet 20,000 tonnes. The balance requirement is met from Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) through linkage coal.
The Dulanga coal block which became commercially operational from October 1, 2020 had set a target to produce 4.75 million tonne (MT) in 2021-22. However, it could achieve production of 3.51 MT till December, 2021 as against the annual coal requirement of over 9 MT for the 1,600 MW (2 X 800 MW) super critical Darlipalli thermal plant.
“The captive coal block of NTPC has set a target to achieve ultimate peak rated capacity (PRC) of 7 MT per annum by 2022-23. However, the target cannot be achieved due to some prevailing issues related to rehabilitation and resettlement of affected families,” informed sources in NTPC regional office here said. Since NTPC is expecting to achieve the PRC by 2023-24, the national PSU has moved to the Ministry of Power to take up the case with the Ministry of Coal for further extension of the bridge linkage of coal from MCL for its fuel security.
The coal estimate of Darlipalli super thermal power plant is estimated at 82 per cent load factor for daily generation of 1,313 MW power for two years. The Standing Linkage Committee-Long Term (SLC-LT) of the Coal Ministry had granted extension of bridge linkage to NTPC for its Darlipalli plant on April 10, 2018 for two years till 2022. The coal linkage was on a tapering basis from 2018 to 2022 as per approved mining plan.
Tapering linkage is a short-term linkage which is provided to those coal consumers who have been allocated captive coal blocks for meeting the coal requirements of their linked end use plants (EUPs) in such cases where the production of coal from these blocks does not synchronise with the requirement of the EUPs.
“The merry-go-round (MGR) project of NTPC is under construction. Once it is over, the national PSU will meet the additional coal requirement from other parts of the country through railways,” sources maintained.