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A double whammy for Uttar Pradesh

LUCKNOW: Wet coal and grossly oversize coal supplied to thermal power units in Uttar Pradesh by the coalmines in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh threatens to choke electricity supply in the State. The use of wet coal by the thermal power plants has led to a fall in generation leading to heavy load-shedding in all the districts of U.P., including the State Capital which is assured of 24-hour uninterrupted supply of electricity.

The Obra and Anpara power plants in Sonebhadra district bordering M.P. which supplied the bulk of power to U.P. have been the worst affected, but the problem is not confined to them alone. Thermal stations in Harduaganj, Parichha and Panki face the same problem, albeit to a lesser extent.

Following a visit to Obra and Anpara by the Managing Director of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited, Avanish Awasthi, and the Managing Director of Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam (UPRVUN), Alok Tandon, a couple of days ago, the State has decided to adopt a tough posture. A four-member team led by UPRVUN Chief Engineer (Thermal Operations) Shailendra Dubey and comprising the Chief Engineer of Obra, K.C. Jain, and Executive Engineers G.K. Mishra and Anil Singh has been despatched to Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh to meet the General Manager of National Coalfields Limited (NCL). When contacted, Mr. Dubey told The Hindu from Obra that the NCL management would be asked to improve the quality of coal being supplied to the thermal units in U.P. In fact, it has been a double whammy for the State.

“The early onset of monsoon this year has led to the coal becoming wet during transit from the conveyor belt to the coal bunker resulting in the machines getting choked. That is one aspect of the problem.

The other is that large-sized coal, four times bigger than the average size of coal, was being made available,” Mr. Dubey added.

The oversize coal is first broken into smaller pieces to fit into the holes leading to the bunker before it is crushed and the coal dust supplied to the huge boilers.

Power outages in addition to long hours of load-shedding have become a regular feature in U.P. but this year the problem has aggravated mainly due to the early onset of the monsoon causing the coal to become wet in the open coalmines. The consumption of coal in Anpara has been 25,000 metric tonnes daily whereas in Obra around 16,000 metric tonnes is consumed daily to keep the generation going. Since the coal is wet, it does not get heated to the desired level. Consequently the machines are not able to run to their full load. This has resulted in the generation to fall.

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