Captive power plants continue to suffer from coal shortage

Captive power plant (CPP) based industries are continuing to suffer with insufficient coal stock position at the plant head, despite Coal India (CIL) building up 10 days stock at the independent power producer plants following a shortage in supplies between mid-August and end November.

At present, coal rake supplies to the CPPs are at levels of 40-50%. CPP-based industries that play a critical role in infrastructure growth, had been either stopped or curtailed of coal supplies.

The government under the “priority sector coal supplies” ordered that the available coal be diverted to the coal starved IPPs resultant shrinkage of supplies to the CPPs having coal based installed capacity of 56,000 MW of the CPP’s total installed capacity of 78,000 MW.

The Indian Captive Power Producers Association (ICPPA), the apex body of captive power producers, in a recent representation to the ministries of coal, railways and power said, the sudden decision of diverting coal left CPP dependent industries with no time to devise mitigation plans for sustainable operations. This move either led the CPPs to curtail generation or come to a standstill. “On an average, CPP based industries are getting less than 50% coal against secured linkages and CIL auctions,” the ICPPA said in its representation.