CHENNAI: Power generation in thermal units at Mettur and Thoothukudi, each of 210 Megawatt (MW) capacity, has been suspended temporarily due to shortage of coal. A senior Tangedco official told TNIE that the main reason was the difficulty in chartering ships to transport coal from Odisha, which is currently the only source of coal for Tamil Nadu.
“While there is ample coal at Paradip Port (in Odisha), it has become difficult to charter bulk carriers in recent days. There is a long queue of ships at the port, waiting to load cargo. As a result, we are not able to get sufficient quantity of coal,” the official said.
Low supply may force PSU to buy private power
The officials are unable to explain why there is a shortage of ships and say the Union government must intervene as the State will face a power crisis if the situation continues. Tamil Nadu has five coal-powered thermal plants – two in Nor th Chennai , one i n Thoothukudi, and two in Mettur.
They depend on coal shipped from Odisha’s Paradip Port to Ennore. When the daily requirement of coal by all five power plants was 60,000 tonnes on Thursday (March 10), only 30,000 tonnes coal was received by ship. The total stock at the end of the day on March 10 stood at 1.8 lakh tonnes.
With this stock, they could manage only three days, the official said. He, however, said the State power utility is receiving smaller quantities of coal via Ennore Port everyday. If coal supply remains affected, it may become difficult to operate thermal plants, and the PSU may have to go for private purchase or spot markets, which will cost more.
A source at Thoothukudi thermal plant said Tangedco has five coalbased thermal plants with a combined generating capacity of 4,320 MW. The coal requirement was 62,000 tonnes a day at around 80-85 per cent plant load factor. “Tangedco has fuel supply agreements with Coal India Limited (CIL). There has been a fall in supplies from CIL during the end of the last year due to heavy rains in North India,” he said.
