Lok Sabha Question No. 2826 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-01-04
Subject: Underutilisation of Thermal Power Plants
Ministry: POWER
Asked by: RAVNEET SINGH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF POWER

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2826 TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.01.2018

## UNDERUTILISATION OF THERMAL POWER PLANTS

2826.  SHRI RAVNEET SINGH:

Will the Minister of POWER be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  various  thermal  power  plants  in  the  country  have  been constantly underutilized with regard to their power generation capacities due to shortage of coal supply to them, if so, the details thereof for the last three years along with suitable action plan for ensuring full capacity utilization of power plants, power plant and State/UT-wise;
- (b) whether  the  Power  Generators  in  various  thermal  power  plants  in the country which were supplied by BHEL have had high down time owing to technical failures, if so, the details thereof; and
- (c) whether  the  Government  has  ascertained  the  economic  costs associated  with  the  non  availability  of  power  to  various  industries  as  a result of shutting down of power plants due to technical maintenance and non availability of coal, if so, the details thereof?

## A N S W E R

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR POWER AND NEW & RENEWABLE ENERGY

( SHRI  R. K. SINGH )

(a) : As reported by the power utilities, the generation loss due to coal  shortage  during  last  three  years  is  given  at  Annex.  The  percentage loss  of  generation  w.r.t.  the  total  generation  was  0.24%,  0%  and  0.04% during last three years i.e. 2014-15 to 2016-17.

The steps taken by the Government to ensure supply of coal to the power plants for ensuring full capacity utilization inter-alia, are :

- (i) The  availability  of  coal  is  being  regularly  monitored  closely  to ensure  that  generation  of  power  plants  is  not  affected  due  to shortage of coal. Due to this, the overall coal stock in the coal based power  plants  have  increased  from  7.3  Million  Tonnes  (MT)  as  on 19.10.2017 to 13.2 MT as on 31.12.2017.

..........2.

- (ii) Coal  blocks  have  been  allotted  to  central/  state  power  utilities  to improve domestic coal availability.
- (iii) The  Government  has  introduced  a  scheme  SHAKTI ( Scheme  for Harnessing  and  Allocating  Koyala ( Coal ) Transparently  in  India )-2017,  to  provide  coal  linkages  to  the  power  plants  which  do  not have any linkage .
- (iv) The Government has introduced flexibility in utilization of domestic coal amongst power generating stations to reduce the cost of power generation. The State/Central Gencos would have flexibility to utilize their coal in optimum and cost effective manner in their own power plants as well as by transferring coal to other State/Central Gencos Power plants for generation of cheaper power.
- (b) : The  outages/down  times  of  thermal  stations  depend  on  the design  and  sizing  practices  of  utilities,  operations  and  maintenance practices,  coal  quality,  unit  sizes  and  vintage  etc.  Large  variations  in outages/down times are seen amongst thermal stations for all suppliers/manufacturers. The  overall  outages/down  times  for  various manufacturers including BHEL are comparable.
- (c) : The  economic  costs  associated  with  the  non-availability  of power to various industries as a result of shutting down of power plants due  to  technical  maintenance  and  non-availability  of  coal  has  not  been ascertained. As the installed generation capacity is almost two times the Electricity  demand  in  the  country,  generally  the  power  supply  is  not affected due to shutting down  of power plants due to technical maintenances and non-availability of coal as other generating stations are able to fulfil the gap.

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ANNEX ANNEX REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2826 TO BE ANSWERED IN THE LOK SABHA ON 04.01.2018. ***********

Generation loss due to coal shortage during last three years

| Year      | Generation loss due to coal shortage (BU)   |   Total Generation (BU) |   % of Total Generation |
|-----------|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------|-------------------------|
| 2014 - 15 | 2 . 68                                      |                    1110 |                    0.24 |
| 2015 - 16 | 0                                           |                    1173 |                    0    |
| 2016 - 17 | 0 . 48                                      |                    1242 |                    0.04 |

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