Coal supply disruption forces NTPC to cut down generation

Generation at the 2,600-Mw NTPC’s Ramagundam Thermal Power Station further declined to 1,400 Mw due to disruption in coal supplies from Singareni coalfields, impacting power supply across the Southern grid.

The pit-head thermal station had reduced generation by 700 Mw as it has almost run out of coal stock.

To avoid further stoppage of generation at the NTPC station, Singareni has started sending a few rakes of coal after marginally resuming production from Manuguru and Sattupally opencast mines in Khammam district on Thursday. “We have extracted about 6,300 tonnes of coal from the two mines in the first shift, of which 4,000 tonne has been sent to NTPC,” a Singareni officials said.

The average production at Singareni is 135,000 tonne coal a day during normal times. NTPC officials are planning to maintain the current generation of 1,400 Mw for the time being as it started replenishments at least marginally.

While Andhra gets 36 per cent of power produced from the Ramagundam station, the rest is shared by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry and Goa. The station is also receiving three rakes of coal from Western and Southeast coalfields as one of its units has linkages from outside the state.