SECL to supply 29500 metric tones of coal to power plants of Chhattisgarh everyday.
Dispatch News.
Raipur. Following an initiative of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, South Eastern Coalfield Limited (SECL) has agreed to supply good quality coal to thermal power plants of Chhattisgarh on priority. The SECL will supply 29500 metric tons of coal every day to the plants.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, while reviewing the status of supply and availability of coal in thermal power plants of the state at his official residence in Raipur. On Monday, he told the CMD of SECL that Chhattisgarh supplies to other states of the country. As coal is extracted from Chhattisgarh, SECL should prioritise the thermal plants of the state as per the requirement and ensure good quality coal is supplied.
The SECL CMD said that 29500 metric tonnes of coal would be supplied daily to Chhattisgarh as per the requirement of thermal power plants of the state. In addition, good quality coal will also be supplied. He said that the quality of coal gets affected due to rain. At present, SECL is supplying 23 thousand 290 metric tonnes of coal to Chhattisgarh. The CMD of SECL agreed to increase this quantity to 29 thousand 500 metric tonnes for Chhattisgarh.
The Chief Minister said in the meeting that railways should ensure to provide a sufficient number of rakes to Chhattisgarh for coal and rice as per requirement. On which the GM of South East Central Railway agreed to it.
In the meeting, Chhattisgarh State Electricity Companies Chairman and Special Secretary Energy Ankit Anand informed that at present coal is left for 3.8 days in Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Thermal Power Plant Korba East. Similarly, 3.2 days coal is available in Hasdeo Thermal Power Plant at Korba West and 7 days coal is available at Madwa Thermal Power Plant. The availability of coal less than the requirement of 5 days as per Central Electricity Authority norms is considered a critical condition. Now by increasing the supply of coal, the availability of coal in sufficient quantities will be ensured to the thermal power plants of Chhattisgarh.
Anand said in the meeting that an uninterrupted supply of electricity is being ensured in urban and rural areas of the state. At present, the average power demand of the state is 3803 MW, against which the availability of electricity is 3810 MW. The average demand for electricity in the state during peak time is 4123 MW, against which the average availability of 4123 MW is being maintained by the power company.
In peak times, 200 to 400 MW power is being procured continuously as per the requirement. He also informed that at present Lara (400 MW) and Sipat units (104 MW) of NTPC and NSPL plant (25 MW) are closed due to annual maintenance. Due to this, a total of 529 MW less electricity is being received. NTPC’s Lara unit is likely to start from October 12. On the commissioning of this unit, there will be almost no position of purchasing power from the exchange. NTPC Sipat plant is likely to be commissioned by October 21.
Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain, Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister Subrata Sahu, Secretary to Chief Minister Siddharth Komal Singh Pardeshi, SECL CMD Ambika Prasad Panda and South East Central Railway’s GM Alok Kumar along with Managing Director of State Electricity Companies were present.
