PSPCL asks Centre to allocate coal mine
Vishal Rambani [email protected]
PATIALA

THERMAL NEEDS Wants one with minimum 500 million tonne extractive quantity, which could cater to state's needs for 35 years
: Aiming to cut coal costs and ensure regular power supply in future, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has approached the union coal ministry for allocation of a coal mine.

The PSPCL has asked the Centre to provide a mine which will have a minimum 500 million tonne extractive quantity of coal. This mine will cater to the state's needs for 35 years. The PSPCL owns a thermal generation plant each at Ropar, Lehra Mohabbat and Bathinda, which generate nearly 2,620 MW power using coal. The corporation has decided to build a 1,320MW plant, for which the site is to be finalised.

“As the state is building power generation capacity through thermal power, it is necessary to have coal reserves...otherwise, we would have to import coal in future,“ said KD Chaudhri, chairman-cum-managing director, PSPCL.

The PSPCL already has a coal mine at Pachwara Centre, Jharkhand, which has extractive coal reserves of 270 million tonne. This can cater to the needs of existing plants for another 30 years.

Presently, every year, PSPCL needs 8.5 million tonne of coal to run its thermal plants. Its monthly expenditure on coal is nearly Rs 325 crore, including freight charges. Apart from mining its own coal, PSPCL also purchases coal from companies.
Owning a mine would not only cut coal costs but is also expected to ensure regular supply. “As the demand is set to increase, we have to add power by adding new plants and upgrading existing ones. We have also planned a 1,320-MW coal basedpower station. Thus we need more coal and we have requested the coal ministry to allocate a coal mine to us,“ Chaudhri added. With coal prices fluctuating and reserves shrinking, the coal ministry has decided to allocate mines to power generation companies to meet the nation's increasing electricity needs.
PACT WITH NHPC KD Chaudhri, chairman-cummanaging director, Punjab State Power Corporation Limited, said PSPCL had signed a power purchase agreement with the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation on Wednesday. The agreement was signed by Arun Verma, director distribution, PSPCL, and Nikka Ram, chief engineer, NHPC. Among other senior officers present were Jaswant Singh Pabla, chief engineer, Arun Gupta, deputy chief engineer (technical), deputy chief engineer JP Singh, and ASE IP Singh.

The CMD said NHPC was developing a 2000-MW hydroelectric power plant in Arunachal Pradesh. The project will have eight units of 250 MW each; from this project, Punjab would be getting 64 MW as per union power ministry directions. Punjab will start getting power from the plant from 2014. Initially, the agreement has been signed for five years; it will be renewed automatically every five years until a new power purchase agreement is signed.