LUCKNOW: Following a review meeting with officials in Bundelkhand, Uttar Pradesh energy minister Arvind Kumar Sharma announced to purchase 10 lakh metric tonnes of coal to generate and boost power supply in the state.
On Saturday, the state recorded 860 MW power outage as the 660 MW unit of government run Harduaganj (Aligarh) thermal power station (TPS) had no coal for generation and neither did the 200 MW unit of Obra (Sonbhadra). Interestingly, independent power producer (IPP) TPS generated 6200 MW power on Saturday.
In UP, IPP such as Anpara (Sonbhadra) ‘C’ TPS of 1200 MW is operated by Lanco Group, Bara (Prayagraj) TPS of 1980 MW is run by Renascent Power, a subsidiary of the Tata Power, while Bajaj Hindusthan Limited owns Lalitpur TPS 1980 MW. The Rosa (Shahjahanpur) TPS of 1200 MW is owned by Reliance Power Limited and Yes Bank.
Power minister said, “We are making efforts to fulfil the needs of state power demand, therefore a decision was made to buy 10 lakh metric tonnes of coal from the mines of Northern Coal Field Limited (NCFL) the subsidiary of Government of India. The coal would be brought through road and rail for the units of the largest capacity thermal power plant in the state---this is Anpara A,B & D (2630 MW). The formalities of expediting the supply of coal have been completed.”
According to UPPCL sources, on Saturday Anpara TPSs received 30,000 MT of coal against the requirement of 40,000MT. The Anpara government run TPSs have coal stock for five days, while Obra for four days, Harduaganj for three days and Parichha (Jhansi) TPS have coal stock for one day only.
On Saturday, UP power demand was 23,000 MW and it managed to supply 19,366 MW with the help of UPRVUNL generating 4,300 MW with TPSs, IPP 6,200 MW, UP hydro power contributed 366 MW and the center provided 8,500 MW.
According to state energy minister in the month of April, 18,0357 complaints were received regarding power outages, out of which 17,7838 complaints were also disposed off in the shortest possible time. The minister has instructed officials to revoke all leaves and ensure power supply round the clock.
In the month of April, UPPCL received 17,069 complaints regarding damage of transformers from all over the state on 1912 toll free number, in which 16,416 complaints were resolved.
