NTPC faces coal shortage due to strike at Talcher Coalfields

Bhubaneswar: NTPC Kaniha power station and NTPC Talcher Thermal Power stations were badly affected by the coal shortage for the ninth day.

The strike at MCL Talcher Coalfields for the ninth consecutive day has led to very critical coal condition at 3,000 MW NTPC Kaniha power plant as well as at 460 MW NTPC Talcher Thermal Power Station, said a company statement on Friday.

At NTPC Talcher Kaniha, three of its 500 MW units have already been shut down due to acute shortage of coal while out of 6 units, only one unit is running at NTPC Talcher Thermal.

Power generation at Talcher Kaniha plant is at 900 MW against the capacity of 3,000 MW due to the grave coal crisis. Three units are running at partial load with technical minimum with total generation of 900 MW.

The prevailing situation may result in acute shortage in power supply to Odisha as well as other states such as Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and the states of North East as well as to the states of southern parts of the country.

Coal production and supply have come to a halt and the power plant has received no coal from mines since July 25.

NTPC Talcher Kaniha plant requires 58,000 MT coal per day to run all its six units on full load whereas NTPC Talcher Thermal plant requires 9000 MT coal on daily basis.

NTPC is somehow managing to run the plants by arranging coal from various distant sources.