Bhatinda thermal plant hit by shortage of coal

PNS | Chandigarh

All four thermal power plants of Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) in Bhatinda, Punjab, are said to be running at half the load due to coal feeding problems.

PSEB sources on Saturday said the four thermal plant units are running at 60 MW each and produced 69 lakh units against the maximum generation of 112 lakh units. The capacity of first two units is 125 MW each after renovation and other two units are of 110 MW each.

A senior PSEB official said the coal feeding problem arises only when the plant does not receive sufficient coal rakes everyday. “There is no problem in direct feeding when the coal rakes arrives,” he said.

It is being felt the authority should run two units on full load instead of running all four units on half load.

The coal stock at Bhatinda thermal plant is 44200 metric tonnes (MT), sufficient for five and a half days if all units are run on full load, while coal stock at Ropar thermal plant is 37500 million tonnes.

At Lehra Mohabatt, the coal stock of 66000 MT is sufficient for around five days, where three units are running on full load one at half of the load and power generated is 169 lakh units.

The under performance of power units comes at a time when the power shortage in the State in winter continues to haunt the consumers. The shortage is estimated to the tune of 110 lakh units daily.

Power demand in the state is around 950 lakh units against the power supply of 840 lakh units daily.The power cuts on the industrial units has been increased to 34 hours a week from the previous schedule of 24 hours a week.