Coal Power Generation Capacity Under Outage Reduces From 11 GW to 6 GW: Govt

The ministry has said that coal-based electricity generation capacity under outage (not generating) has come down.

Representative image of coal-fired power plants.

(Photo: iStock)

The Ministry of Power, on Wednesday, 13 October, cited the Power System Operation Corporation Limited (POSOCO) as reporting that the total capacity of units under outage due to low coal stocks has reduced from 11 GW on Tuesday, 12 October, to 6 GW on Wednesday, 13 October.

Further, as per PTI, the ministry said that coal-based electricity generation capacity under outage (not generating) due to shortage of the dry fuel came down to 6 GW on Wednesday from 11 GW on Tuesday.

Amid growing concerns over the shortage of coal and subsequent power outages, Union Minister of Coal Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday said that there were no threats to power supply and urged people not to panic. He said that Coal India Ltd has “22 days' stock of coal” with it. Joshi’s remarks come amid an ongoing coal crisis in the country.

Earlier, Joshi had said that cumulative coal supplies to thermal power plants had crossed two million tonnes on Tuesday.

“I don’t want to do politics over this. We have already been meeting the total requirement. Today, the requirement is 1.1 million tonnes of coal for power generation and we have already supplied two million tonnes. The stock is also rising because of it. I assure that there will be no problem in meeting the supply for power generation in the country," PTI reported.

Meanwhile, reacting to data that suggested shortgae, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while speaking at Harvard Kennedy School in Boston, said, "Absolutely baseless! There is no shortage of anything. In fact, if I recall the minister’s statement, every power-producing installation has the next four days’ stock absolutely available within their own premises and the supply chain has not broken at all.”

(With inputs from PTI)