Talcher: Acute coal shortage has severely hit power production in the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) at Kaniha near here in Angul district, a report said.
The unit-1 of the 3,000 megawatt based Navaratna company has been shut down due to coal shortage. Moreover, power production has been substantially reduced in the remaining five units, according to a press release issued by Amit Behera, public relations officer of NTPC.
The crisis has arisen due to two ongoing strikes by Patharmunda villagers and SAPs (substantial affected persons of various villages), the release said.
The agitation by Patharmunda villagers in Kaniha block has disrupted coal extraction and transportation from MCL owned Kaniha opencast mines. The villagers are on a strike over rehabilitation and employment since February 11.
Similarly, the SAPs are staging a rail-roko on the Talcher- Kaniha route which has hit coal extraction and transportation from MCL owned Lingaraj mines. NTPC sources claimed that the state government has announced a cash package for the SAPs instead of employment but the latter are continuing with the rail-roko agitation despite being aware of the government order.
This has sparked concern among the NTPC authorities as the plant now struggles to generate power to its full capacity to meet the grid demand with the available stock of coal. NTPC has suffered a loss of Rs 5 crore due to the twin agitations.
The NTPC project at Kaniha has 500 megawatt based six units. The project requires 55,000 tonnes of coals to keep the units running for power production. It gets around 50,000 -55,000 tonnes of coals from Lingaraj and Kaniha opencast mines by railway. It receives 20,000 -25,000 tonnes of coals from mines in Kaniha and 30,000 – 35,000 tonnes of coals from the Lingaraj mines.
The twin strikes have paralysed power production in NTPC. It is now left with only 94,000 tonnes of coal which can at best run the project for two more days.
However, what has surprised many is how the NTPC authorities are left with coal stocks for only two days when it is required to store coal at least for a fortnight. The coal shortage is indicative of negligence and lackadaisical attitude of the authorities, observers said.
The NTPC project supplies 523 megawatt of power to the state, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telengana, Kerala and Puducherry.
It is now managing to generate to its full capacity to meet the grid demand with the available coal stock. However, the situation cannot last long and power generation would be substantially reduced if the strike continues any further, said NTPC authorities.
PNN