Bhubaneswar: Coal supply to Odisha-based power plants has disrupted following the fatal accident in Bharatpur Open Cast Coal Mining Project in Talcher coalfileds of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL).

The NTPC’s 3000MW Kaniha Talcher Super Thermal Power Plant(TSTPP) and the Nalco’s captive power plants are facing coal crunch due to stoppage of supply from the Talcher coalfields. A NTPC release said three units of 500MW of its 3000 MW Kaniha plant has been shut down resulting in power production coming down to 900 to 1000 MW.

On July 24, three coal mine workers were killed and nine injured in a strata collapse which resulted in landslide in the mines.

Talcher Coalfields, which used to produce 2.1 lakh tonne a day during the rainy season, came to a halt on July 24 after the accident, said a MCL official on Monday.

A MCL official said that due to the agitation of mine workers demainding a high-level probe and adequate compensation to the families of deceased, the company is not able to raise or dispatch coal for the last six days. This has resulted Rs 85.68 crore loss to the company and Rs 55.46 crore loss to the state and central exchequer. The power plants suffered 1,339.42 million units generation loss, the official said.

The official said that the MCL is diverting two rakes of coal from Ib Valley Coalfields to NTPC’s Kaniha NTPC, efforts are on to supply one rake coal from Basundhara coal mines under Ib Valley Coalfileds to Nalco.

A NTPC press release with headline “Acute coal shortage results in shutting down of NTPC Kaniha power station” said: The agitation at MCL Talcher Coalfields has resulted in to critical condition
at 3,000 MW NTPC Kaniha power plant as three of its 500 MW units have
been shut down due to the acute shortage of coal.
Coal production and supply have come to a halt and the power plant has
received no coal from mines since July 25,2019.
Power production at the plant has declined to below 1,000 MW against the
capacity of 3,000 MW due to the grave coal crisis. The three units are
running with technical minimum with total generation of 900 – 1000 MW .
The prevailing situation may result in acute shortage in power supply to
Odisha as well as other states.
The plant requires 55,000 MT coal daily to run all its six units on full load.
Due to prevailing coal crisis, the units are functioning on partial load.
Efforts are on to direct coal from various other sources to overcome the crisis.