New Delhi, March 14 (Bureau) Amid forecasts of a hot summer and peak power demand reaching 230 GW, the government has directed thermal power plants (TPPs) to not go for any planned outage during April and May this year. In written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Power Minister RK Singh listed out various measures taken by the government to avert power crisis and noted that coal stock available at coal-fired thermal plants is sufficient to run the plant for 12 days at a requirement of 85% plant load factor (PLF). “As on 05.03.2023, the coal stock available at these TPPs is about 34 MT, which is sufficient to run the plant for 12 days at a requirement of 85% PLF.
This is about 50% of the coal stocking norms issued by Central Electricity Authority,” the Minister said. As part of advance planning ahead of summer, Ministry of Power (MoP) last month issued directions to imported coal based plants under Section 11 of Electricity Act to operate and generate power to their full capacity. “MoP has directed thermal power plants to not take any planned outage during April and May 2023,” the Minister said. He also said that MoP has approved a mechanism for operationalisation of around 5000 MW gas based power plants for 18 days during crunch period (Apr-May 2023). State-run power producer NTPC is planning to import around 5.4 million tons of coal for its group stations to meet domestic coal supply shortage during first half of Financial Year 2023-24, according to the written reply.