22 power plants operating with below 4 days’ coal stock: Goyal
05 Aug 2014
As many as 22 coal-based power plants monitored by the Central Electricity Authority are struggling under the perpetual fuel shortage, with coal stocks to last less than four days as of last week, coal and power minister Piyush Goyal informed parliament on Monday.
"As on 29 July, out of the coal-based power stations monitored on daily basis by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), 22 power plants are having coal stock less than four days," the minister said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
Among the difficulties was the reduced supply from subsidiaries of state-owned monopoly Coal India Ltd due law and order problems, and the deficient monsoon, for low coal stocks at power plants.
"Due to deficient monsoon, hydroelectricity generation has reduced considerably, thus requiring enhanced generation from coal-based stations. Due to this, coal requirement has increased," Goyal said.
"Thus during June 2014 there was a record growth of 20.35 per cent in coal-based generation as compared to last year during the same month," he added.
He, however, said efforts were being made to supply adequate coal to critical power plants to maintain generation.
"As on 29 July, the availability of coal in thermal power plants monitored by the CEA was 9.88 million tonnes (mt)," he said.
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