VISAKHAPATNAM: After a considerable decline in the demand for thermal power, the short supply of coal has made the situation worse for the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Simhadri unit in Visakhapatnam.
Lack of adequate coal supply has forced the authorities to shut down the first unit of the plant from Sunday night and officials say that it may take a few days more to restore the normalcy.
For the past few years, the coal supply scenario of the NTPC- Simhadri unit of Parwada has been grim and with the condition turning for the worse, the authorities shut down the 500 MW Unit-1 of the plant on Sunday night.
As a practice, the plant procures coal from the Kalinga Block of Talcher Coal Fields in Odisha and shift the loads by East Coast Railway (ECoR) through the Kolkata-Chennai trunk line.
The NTPC- Simhadri has four units of 500 MW capacity each. The demand for thermal power has been on a decline for the past few months owing to the availability of hydel and other alternative power sources and it has a cascading effect on the production output of the NTPC. Adding to this, the coal stock provided by the Coal India has been meagre. As a majority of the units has become semi-operational, plant’s group general manager (GGM) Nav Kumar (NK) Sinha has decided to meet the Odisha authorities to chalk out the possible solutions to ease the situation, an NTPC official said on the condition of anonymity.
Capable of generating 48 million units of power in a day, the Simhadri Super Thermal Power Station supplies 1,000 MW from the first phase and 335 MW from the second phase to Andhra Pradesh. Since January 2013, the utilisation factor has been on a decline owing to the shortfall in domestic coal receipts. Consequently, the units are being run at the minimum load of 70 to 80 percent now.
“In our attempt to compensate the shortfalls in coal supply all these days, we have exhausted the ground stocks. Now, we are relying on the daily-based supplies. However, we are confident that things will return to normalcy very soon. The Unit-1 will resume operation, once adequate coal stocks are available,” said an official of NTPC-Simhadri.
Grim picture
Since January 2013, utilisation factor has been on a decline owing to the shortfall in domestic coal receipts
With meagre coal stock provided by Coal India, units have become semi-operational
The units are being run at the minimum load of 70 to 80 percent now
The plant procures coal from Kalinga Block of Talcher Coal Fields in Odisha
Plant GGM) Nav Kumar (NK) Sinha will meet Odisha authorities to chalk out possible solutions to ease the situation