T stir hit power generation: Report

Telangana crisis in September last year hampered coal production in Singareni Collieries Company Ltd, a State-owned coal miner, resulting in a huge power generation loss in Southern States.

A report by Central Electricity Authority (CEA) said that coal availability to power stations deteriorated due to Telangana crisis during September 2011. The separate state movement hampered the production in the Singareni mines which had affected coal supplies to many generating stations of Southern Region, especially Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, the CEA report said.
Plant load factor (PLF) of thermal power stations at the national level during 2011-12 was reduced to 73.54 per cent from 75.08 per cent achieved during the corresponding period the previous year. The lower PLF was due to increased generation loss due to coal supply problem and transmission constraints and reserve shut down/low system demand, the CEA said in its report.
PLF is an indicator of the efficiency of a power plant based on electricity generation. Coal production at Singareni took a beating as most of the mining activities including coal evacuation and transportation came to a standstill at many mines across the region. Majority of employees joined 42-day 'Sakala Janula Samme' called by various pro-Telangana organizations, including political parties demanding formation of separate Telangana State.
According to reports, coal production was 2.1 million tonnes in September 2011 against the targeted 3.7 million tonnes. Similarly, the production was 3.03 million tonnes in October 2011 against the target of 4.3 million tonnes.
The generation from gas-based plants had negative growth rate on account of low schedules coupled with shortage of gas. During the year, the generation from gas-based plants (including liquid fuel, diesel etc.,) were 93.22 billion units in comparison to 99.97 BU in the previous year.

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