Bathinda, December 9
All the three thermal plants of Punjab have started facing a threat of closure following a regular depletion of their respective stocks of coal, a basic raw material and thermal plants’ lifeline.
Against the guidelines laid down by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) that every thermal plant, situated at a distance of more than 1,000 km from the coal mines, will keep 14 to 21 days’ stock of coal on its premises, all thermal plants in Bathinda, Ropar and Lehra Mohabbat in Punjab have been running on a bare minimum stock of coal for five days only.
Official sources said what had been causing worry to the managements concerned of these thermal plants was the fact that against the average daily consumption of 25,000 MT of coal in all units, the daily supply had remained around 20,000 MT. This way, the three thermal plants of the state had been finding that the coal crisis had been deepening daily.
Getting panicky over the situation, some of the high-ranking officials of these thermal plants had been urging the Chairman of Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) on telephone regularly to make extra efforts to ensure the supply of an adequate quantity of coal to Punjab-based thermal plants.
“We are running the thermal plants on the hope that the supply will become normal. If it does not happen, the state will face major
unscheduled power cuts and closure of various units”, pointed out a senior official of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) on condition of anonymity while talking to TNS today. He added that at present the thermal power stations had been failing to stick to the guidelines of the PSEB in which it had been made mandatory for every thermal plant to keep the stock of coal for 10 to 14 days.
Official sources said at present, two units of Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDTP), Bathinda, were not functioning as one of the units had been shut down for annual maintenance while the other had been shut down after a leakage in its boiler. All six units of the Ropar Thermal Plant and two units of Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant (GHTP) were working normally.
Sources said the supply of coal to all thermal plants by the CCL, the major supplier of coal to the PSEB, had become erratic as its management had been facing a problem in transporting coal from the collieries to the nearby rail heads due to a tiff between transporters and the mafia operating in those regions.
To get rid of this problem forever, the managements of these thermal plants had decided to urge the coal linkage committee to reduce the quota of supply of coal of the CCL to Punjab thermal plants from the existing 50 per cent to 35 per cent at its meeting to be held on December 24. By reducing the quota of supply of the CCL and shifting the same quota to other suppliers, the coal-shortage crisis will be over within a few days.
Mr Sharat Chander Mahajan, Chief Engineer, GNDTP, said there was six days’ stock of coal lying with them, adding that the position was not favourable.
