NTPC crisis likely to plunge parts of nation into darkness

Talcher: Large parts of the country may plunge into darkness as power production at the 3,000-MW NTPC’s Kaniha power plant in Odisha continues to remain disrupted due to acute shortage of coal supply from Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited.

Three of the NTPC’s six 500-MW units have been shut down due to the shortage of fuel.

 “Coal production and supply have come to a halt and the power plant has received no coal from mines since July 25,” an NTPC official said on Tuesday.

Power production at the plant has declined to below 1,000 MW against the capacity of 3,000 MW due to the coal crisis.

“The three units are running with technical minimum with total generation of 900 - 1000 MW.

The prevailing situation may result in acute shortage in power supply to Odisha as well as other states,” the official said.

The plant requires 55,000 MT coal daily to run all its six units on full load. Due to prevailing coal crisis, the units are functioning on partial load.

“Efforts are on to direct coal from various other sources to overcome the crisis,” the official informed.

The NTPC-Kaniha plant supplies power to Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana as well as Bihar and West Bengal. Power production has been hit due to the on-going agitation of the BJP.

The saffron party on July 25 launched its agitation following the landslide mishap at MCL’s Bharatpur Coal Mines on July 23.

While four labourers were killed, at least 10 workers were injured in the landslide. The agitating BJP workers are demanding security of labourers and employees engaged at MCL and implementation of new guidelines by the state government to curb such mishap in future.