PANEM threatens to curtail coal supply for Punjab thermals V K Gupta October 21st, 2013 0 inShare1 PANEM threatens

Monday Chandigarh to curtail October coal supply 21, after Dewali 2013

PANEM has threatened to curtail the coal supply to the thermal plants in Punjab after October end as an arm twisting measure. The loss of generation from thermal plants due to dwindling coal stock may lead to partial blackout after Dewali. PANEM has informed Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd. (PSPCL) that some political parties during election time would embark on another demonstration in October with fresh demands at PSPCLs captive coal mine and may result in stoppage of mining operation and distich of coal to thermal plants. PANEM in its letter of September 6 to the CMD of PSPCL also claimed that company has been raising various issues regarding financial constraints since December 2012. The company claimed that coal quality being supplied to thermal plants in Punjab is superior to what is being declared by PSPCL testing laboratories. Moreover PSPCL has not taken any favorable decision in this regard. PANEM has threatened that whatever quantity of coal has been exposed shall be dispatched by end October or mid November and after that PSPCL may take charge of mine. PANEM is a joint venture of PSPCL & EMTA of Kolkata. 60% of the coal requirements of the three thermal plants of Punjab are met by company. PANEM meets 85% of its coal requirement for Lehar Mohabatt. The supply of 80-90 racks of coal per month to Lehra

Mohabatt thermal plant has now reduced the supplies to half despite the fact that its mining capacity has been increased by PSPCL from 7 million tons per annum(MTPA) to 9 MTPA for the year 2013-14 by further enhanced to 15 MTPA subsequently. PSPCL took note of the situation in its 30th meeting held on September 20 and decided to explore the possibilities to build up the coal stock and examine the alternative of power purchase to meet any eventuality due to stoppage of coal. Chief Engineer Fuel in its memorandum has anticipated nil stock at Lehra Mohabatt and Bhatinda thermal plants by the end of October and at Ropar thermal plant the stock will be just sufficient to run the plant for 7.7 days. PSPCL plants can generate 750 MW only from coal supplies made by Coal India. According to sources todays coal stock at Lehra Mohabatt is sufficient for 12 days and Ropar and Bhatinda the stock is sufficient for 16 and 18 days respectively. Two units of Lehra thermal plant has been put on shut down keeping in view dwindling coal stock position. It may be mentioned that Lehra Mohabatt thermal consumes least quantity (550 Grams) of coal for generating one unit of electricity. A senior PSPCL official said that after having failed to influence Lehra Mohabatt thermal plant authorities to tow its line on coal testing, PANEM, as an arm twisting measure, reduced supplies to Lehra Plant. PENAM even challenged the coal test results of Lehra thermal plant and went for third party testing. Out of the 125 reference samples sent for independent testing there was not much variation in test results. Related posts

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