No fuel, 12 GW power plants shuttered down across India

Over 9,000 megawatt (mw) of thermal power plants are shut due to non-availability of coal while almost 3,500 mw of thermal power projects are idle for the want of gas, taking the total total capacity out of the grid because of lack of fuel at 12 gigawatt (gw).

Most of these power stations are from the private sector and includes big names include Adani Power, Essar Power, GMR Energy, GVK Power & Infrastructure, Larsen & Toubro and Jaiprakash Associates.

According to data collated, as on Thursday about power plants and unit having an installed capacity of over 9,000 mw, or 9 gw, of power generation were non-operational due to 'coal shortage'.

They are out of grid, despite the government stressing on achieving higher plant load factor (PLF) to meet the increased energy demand across India.

The coal-fired power plants shut include the stressed assets that are up for sale.

At most of the thermal power stations, the entire plant is not shut but certain units are affected due to lack of fuel supply. For example, Unit 3 of Prayagraj Thermal Power Plant of Jaiprakash Associates is hit by coal shortage, making a 660 MW capacity idle.

Likewise, Adani Power's Mundra Thermal Power Station too has not been getting coal, resulting in idling of five units having a generation capacity of 2,310 mw. Also, the unit 5 of Adani's Tirora plant is unable to generate 660 mw of power.

The stressed Essar Salaya Power Plant with an installed capacity of 1,200 mw has been non-operational for want of 'imported coal'. Similarly, Larsen & Toubro's Nabha Power has been forced to shut a 700 mw unit of the Rajpura thermal power station due to shortage of coal.

In Andhra Pradesh, GVK and GMR Energy are unable to produce electricity from their Jegurupadu and Kakinada plants due to unavailability of gas.

On the government side, two units of Madhya Pradesh Power Generation Company's Satpura Thermal Power Station too are out of order.

On the other hand, drought at Maharashtra's Chandrapur and Tamil Nadu's Kovil Kalappal has forced the two thermal plants to remain silent.

"In some cases, there aren't enough rakes available to supply coal to these plants resulting in coal shortage, leading to shutdown for days altogether. There is a need to revamp fuel supply arrangement. Earlier, the process was streamlined, but gradually it went haywire. Now, efforts need to be renewed to put things into place like before," said an analyst.

Some coal mines in Odisha closed down, which had a cascading effect on power plants that were linked to them. "The issues differ from transport bottlenecks to disruption in mining to inability of opening of new mines, etc," said Kuljit Singh, partner & industry leader, infrastructure at EY.

Financial stress and viability challenges have also led to increase in shutdown of power plants. Experts said it isn't just fuel supply, but also financial stress that has led to non-generation of power. Though the government has taken corrective measures to ensure there isn't shortfall of coal, the results of these measures will only be visible in a span of next 6 to 12 months.

"Reduction in the capacity utilisation of thermal power plants is a fallout due to issues around the fuel supply arrangements and limited improvement in the financial health of buyers (State Electricity Boards). Apart from this, the accommodation of increasing renewable sources would mean further restraining the bandwidth to absorb power generated from conventional sources," said Sandeep Upadhyay, managing director and chief executive officer of Centrum Infrastructure Advisory.

According to Upadhyay, this would mean not just compromising with the finances, but also the technical viability of thermal plants, since below 55% PLF the key components like boilers and generators which are otherwise designed to cater higher PLFs up to 85% grossly underperform, leading to higher consumption of coals and decreasing their life."

As per Ministry of Power's data, on Thursday, as many as 92 non-ported and 14 ported power stations had a coal stock of less than five days. Only a handful of eight pithead and non-pithead power stations had coal reserves of above six days.