Oct 2012
Hindustan Times (Chandigarh
)Gurpreet Singh Nibber
PSPCL told to begin coal audit
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab state electricity regulatory commission (PSERC) has ordered the state-owned power corporation to begin coal audit at its captive mine in Pachwara, Jharkhand.

The PSERC took suo motu action after reports of coal pilferage. The Punjab state power corporation limited (PSPCL) and eastern mining and trading agency (EMTA) own the mine together, with the PSPCL holding 26% equity share and EMTA the rest.

PANEM, a joint venture company, manages this mine and its entire coal mined comes to Punjab to feed the thermal-electricity plants at Ropar, Bathinda and Lehra Mohabbat. About 80 lakh tonnes of coal is mined every year at Pachwara, which fulfils 60% of the fuel requirement of the three power plants.

The PSERC has asked the PSPCL to get coal audit done from Fuel Research Institute in Dhanbad and the comptroller and auditor general (CAG).

The regulatory commission order signed by chairperson Romila Dubey and members Virinder Singh and Gurinderjit Singh says the coal audit will study the quantum of coal extracted and supplied to the PSPCL plants. “It will have a far-reaching effect on fuel security of the state,” said the order.
Reacting to the development, the PSPCL’s director of generation, GS Chhabra, said he was unaware of the PSERC order. “We will see how best to implement the order,” he said. “We do depute our teams from time to time to know how coal is handled at the mine and brought to the plants.”

The PSERC order puts coast cutting as the main reason to ask for coal audit at the mine. As the cost of power is rising, it feels that one of the ways to keep the power price in control is to check wastage and pilferage.

After to a study by the centre for power research institute (CPRI), the PSERC, in its order of October 8, has directed the PSPCL to implement its various recommendations in the CPRI’s report on fuel savings and cost reduction.

In the order, the PSPCL is asked to adopt a uniform method of gross calorific value (GCV) measurement of coal received and coal bunkered. To implement the fuel audit, the one-time expense is Rs 8.58 crore, but the annual saving will be around Rs 320 crore.

The PSPCL receives 80 lakh tonnes of coal from PANEM and another 45 lakh tonnes from the Coal India Limited mines at Ranchi, Dhanbad, and Bilaspur.