Coal availability constraints to hit Punjab’s thermal projects

Yogindra Mohan
Patiala

Constraints in availability of coal for the upcoming thermal power projects in Punjab would be a major problem unless the Coal India Limited authorities take measures to ease availability of coal.

Sources in the power sector told Daily Post that coal availability for thermal plants is going to be major constraint to sustain the proposed capacity addition proposed in the 12th Plan, as per report of working group on power.

To sustain the thermal capacity addition proposed in the 12th Plan, coal availability to power sector must be increased by domestic coal companies to 688 million tons by the end of 12th Plan.

The capacity addition requirement during 12th Plan has been worked out to be 75,715 MW. The major part of capacity addition will come from coal based thermal plants and that has been assessed at 62,625 MW. Broad details of coal based capacity of 62,695 MW comprises of 23,940 MW of super critical technology and balance 38,755 MW of sub critical technology. The location of these thermal plants 25,610 MW at load centres, 25,995 MW at pithead and 11,540MW in coastal areas.

Even today, as per Central Electricity Authority (CEA) report there are 31 thermal plants in the country which have less than seven days coal stock and these includes 18 thermal plants which come under super critical category of less than four days coal stock. The main reason for less coal stock is less supply of coal by Coal India Ltd (CIL). The problem will be more severe for the upcoming projects of Punjab

The shortage of coal for coal based thermal plants which will have to be met through import. In order to bridge the above gap between demand and coal availability, power utilities are expected to import around 159 million tons (MT) to meet shortage in coal supply from the CIL.

However, such a huge quantity of imported coal for blending may not be feasible as in the existing boilers where maximum 15 per cent of blending of imported coal is possible. This quantity of imported coal would be in addition to 54 MT coal likely to be imported by thermal power stations designed on imported coal. Therefore, the total quantity of coal required to be imported is about 213 MT.

The working group on coal for the 12th.Plan has envisaged the average wagon requirement at 446 rakes per day out of which 165 rakes per day will be required on account of imported coal. Wagon loading in 2010-11 had been 295 rakes per day. The annualised growth in rail loading, thus envisaged to be 7.1 per cent. Railway connectivity between ports and hinterland consumption centres would be of vital importance for movement of imported coal.

In the perspective of widening gap between demand and indigenous availability of coal, time bound fast-track implementation of coal projects should be given highest priority.

To optimise coal transportation Railways will have to augment their capacity to evacuate coal from major coal fields namely North Karampura, Ib Valley, Talcher and Mand Raigarh. For smooth and faster evacuation of coal, coal conveyors should be used to transport coal from mine to rail head with automatic loading in wagons.