New Delhi: India's thermal power plants (TPPs) currently possess coal stock that can last 8.7 days, figures from a Central Electricity Authority's (CEA) report shows. The plants were holding 23.43 Million Tonnes (MT) of coal on September 17 and burnt 2.70 MT of it that day. Set against each other, those two figures put the 224.53 GW fleet on 8.7 days of cover. When measured instead against what the same plants would need to run at 85 percent plant load factor (PLF), the cover thins to 7.5 days.
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The CEA sets a normative stock level that every plant is meant to hold. The fleet is carrying 40 percent of that level, and 72 of the 190 plants CEA monitors have fallen far enough below it to be flagged critical.
A plant is marked critical when its stock falls below 25 percent of the normative requirement.
The shortage is not spread evenly across the country. It sits heaviest in the north-west, where entire state fleets are running thin rather than individual units. Every one of Haryana's five coal plants is flagged critical, which is 100 percent of the state's coal capacity, and the state fleet is carrying 16.3 percent of its normative stock. Rajasthan is barely better placed, with eight of nine plants critical, 96.3 percent of capacity affected and 17.9 percent of normative in the yards.
Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh carry the largest absolute numbers. Twelve of Maharashtra's 22 plants are critical, covering 64.5 percent of its coal capacity, and the state fleet holds 26.8 percent of normative. Uttar Pradesh has 11 of 23 plants critical and 46 percent of capacity affected, at 31.6 percent of normative. Andhra Pradesh follows at 51.9 percent of capacity, Uttar Pradesh's neighbour Madhya Pradesh at 33.7 percent, and Karnataka at 43.9 percent.
Punjab is the outlier that has to be read carefully. Two of its five plants are critical, accounting for 59.5 percent of its coal capacity, yet the state fleet as a whole sits at 60.4 percent of normative. Odisha is the most comfortable at 89.9 percent, followed by Gujarat at 73.7 percent.
At the utility level, three state generators have no plant left above the line. Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited (RRVUNL) has all seven of its plants critical, with the fleet at 13.5 percent of normative and 3.1 days of cover. Suratgarh Super TPS is down to 9 percent of its norm, Suratgarh TPS to 10 percent, Kota TPS to 11 percent and Kalisindh TPS to 14 percent.
Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation Limited (APGENCO) is in the same position with both its plants, at 13.3 percent of normative and 3.1 days. Dr N Tata Rao TPS is at 13 percent and Rayalaseema TPS at 14 percent. Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) completes the group with all three plants critical, at 16.9 percent and 3.1 days, and its Panipat TPS at 7 percent is the lowest-stocked state-sector plant in the country.
Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (MAHAGENCO) has five of seven plants critical and the fleet at 25.6 percent. NTPC Limited's position is different in kind. Five of its 27 plants are flagged — Dadri, Tanda, Solapur, Telangana STPP Phase 1 and Nabinagar STPP — but the fleet as a whole holds 44.1 percent of normative, so the stress there is plant-specific rather than system-wide. Among independent power producers (IPPs), 36 of 83 plants are critical against a fleet average of 46.4 percent.
The clearest signal in the report is in the transport column. Of the 190 plants, 128 are rail-fed, and those plants are holding 32.8 percent of their normative stock between them. They also account for 59 of the 72 critical plants.
The plants that do not depend on rail are in a different position altogether. The 14 road-fed plants hold 68.5 percent of normative and the 15 sea-fed plants 69.7 percent, with three and five critical plants, respectively. Ten plants using a combined rail and sea route sit in between at 45.5 percent.
Proximity to the mine tells the same story. CEA's own summary puts the 18 pithead plants at 55 percent of normative stock, against 35 percent for the 157 domestic-coal plants away from the pithead. The comparison has to be made on that percentage rather than on days, because a pithead plant's norm is 12 days where the rest are held to 20.
According to the report, 56 of the 72 critical thermal power plants have less than normative stock because of lesser supplies by a coal company. South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) is named in 20 of those, Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) in 11 and Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) in 10, with a further eight pointing at coal companies generally and seven naming the Railways alongside a subsidiary.
Seven plants are told to lift more from their own captive mines, and seven to build stock through imports or to liquidate coal already sitting at port or in transit.
Coal India Limited has already moved on the evacuation side, allowing plants holding fuel supply agreements to lift additional coal by road alongside rail from September 7.
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Measured in days of cover at each plant's own consumption on September 17, the thinnest positions are held by some of the country's largest units.
Adani Power's 1,980 MW Mundra TPP-III sits at the bottom with 0.2 days of coal. Butibori TPP in Maharashtra, at 600 MW, is next with 0.3 days. Two more Maharashtra plants follow close behind. Dahanu TPS, at 500 MW, has 0.8 days of cover, and the 600 MW GMR Warora TPS has 0.9 days.
Cover crosses a single day only from the fifth plant onwards. Haryana's 710 MW Panipat TPS and the 1,440 MW Uchpinda TPP in Chhattisgarh are level at 1.1 days each. Anpara C TPS in Uttar Pradesh, at 1,200 MW, holds 1.5 days. Sasan UMTPP follows at 1.7 days, Rajasthan's 1,320 MW Suratgarh Super TPS at 1.8 days, and the 1,800 MW JSW Mahanadi in Chhattisgarh at two days.
Sasan is the largest unit among them. The 3,960 MW ultra mega thermal power project (UMTPP) was holding 82,700 tonne against a burn of 47,500 tonne on the day.
One plant reported zero stock while still generating. Torangallu TPS (SBU-I) in Karnataka, a 260 MW unit, ran at 47 percent PLF on September 17 and consumed 1,000 tonne, which means it was burning coal as it arrived.
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