Punjab's thermal plants stare at major coal crisis
Patiala, February 22: Punjab may once again head towards major power outage in the coming days. As per reports, although Coal India Limited is mining six percent more coal than the last year, it is selling it through e-auction in excess of its fixed rates, which is costly for thermal plants in Punjab. At the same time, the Railways is charging 15 percent more for providing empty racks.
According to experts in the power sector, Punjab is likely to face power outage due to a shortage of coal during the coming paddy season. On the other hand, National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd is paying 15 per cent extra premium to the Railways.
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If we talk about coal reserves in Punjab's thermal plants, coal in public sector Lehra Mohabbat thermal plant till Sunday was only for 21.6 days. Similarly, Ropar Thermal Plant has 25.2 days of coal in stock.
In private sector plants, GVK Thermal Plant at Goindwal Sahib has only five days of coal left while Talwandi Sabo has 2.6 days of coal stock.
In Rajpura's Nabha thermal plant, only 7.4 days of coal stock was left as of Sunday. In the corresponding period last year, 17 to 39 days of coal was left in various thermal plants, but in August, Coal India Limited stopped the supply of coal due to heavy rain, which led to major power crisis in Punjab.
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If Powercom does not act soon, power crisis may erupt in Punjab even before the paddy season.
— Report by Gagandeep Ahuja for PTC News
