Address quality of coal, Centre urged

Chennai: Power minister P. Thangamani on Friday urged the Union power ministry to address the issue of poor quality of coal being supplied to the Tangedco’s power station by the Coal India.

Speaking at the conference of Power, Renewable Energy and Mines Ministers of the states and union territories at Vadodara, Gujarat, he said that inferior quality of coal supplied from Kanika Sidings of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) has resulted in damage to coal handling equipment at discharge ports and at Tangedco’s power stations.

The minister requested the power ministry to advise the Coal ministry to reduce the coal supply from IB Valley Sidings and to increase the realisation of coal from Talcher sidings through Paradip port so that quality coal is available to Tangedco.

Pointing to the poor average realisation of coal at NTECL, Vallur, which is a joint venture project of Tangedco and NTPC, he demanded that the union power ministry recommend to the East Coast Railways to allot sufficient wagons to Tangedco and Vallur to meet the maximum realisation of coal linkages from the MCL.

Mr Thangamani said that the rationalisation of the prices of various grades of coal supplied by Coal India through its subsidiaries resulted in additional financial impact of Rs 139 crore for Tangedco in this financial year. He said that the coal prices for higher grades of coal were reduced whereas prices of lower grades of coal were increased.

“Lower grade coal accounts for about 95 per cent of the total coal procured by Tangedco and this has resulted in an additional financial impact of '139.75 crores for Tangedco for the year 2016-17,” he said.

He noted that this was in addition to the increased expense on coal due to the hike in clean environment cess costing Rs 450 crore and Coal Terminal Surcharge imposed by the Railway at Rs 55 per metric tonne of coal amounting to Rs 400 per year

State power minister P. Thangamani demanded the Centre to fund the construction of 500 mw Kundha and 2,000 mw Sillahalla Pumped Storage Hydro Electric Projects undertaken by the state under the renewable energy scheme.

“The Pumped Storage Hydro Projects are vital for maximum utilization and effective grid management of renewables as they act as spinning reserves,” he said. He also demanded the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to provide a grant of Rs 150 crore invested by Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation for installing capacitor banks for compensating reactive power consumed by renewable energy generators.