17 states may face acute power Crisis as Coal Scarcity forces NTPC to shut 3 units at its Talcher Plant

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Bhubaneswar: Severe Coal scarcity has forced public sector Thermal power producer NTPC to halt 3 units at its Kaniha plant in Talcher, Odisha. While the company had closed one unit 6 days ago, it closed another 2 unit last Sunday which could lead to power scarcity in as many as 17 states of the country.

The NTPC’s Kaniha plant, which has 6 units of with power generation capacity 500 MW each, needs as much as 55 thousand tonnes of Coal per day. However, due to strike by the local people on various issues, the coal supply from the Kholamuhin Coal mines has severely been impacted which had forced NTPC to utilize its emergency coal stock. NTPC had also imported 10 thousand metric tonnes of Coal from other states to meet the emergency situation.  But as these emergency coal stocks have been depleting, the plant has closed 2 units. The plant with installed capacity of 3000 MW is now producing only 1200 MW which may lead to power scarcity at 17 states in the Southern, Eastern and Northern parts of the country. The home state Odisha, which gets 530 MW from the plant, is now getting only 250 MW.

The Jagannth Coal mines at Kholamuhin in Talcher has been supplying 6 thousand tonnes of Coal per day to NTPC. But due to stiff opposition by the locals, the production has significantly declined at the coal mines.  The people are agitating against the land acquisition for the proposed expansion of the coal mine.

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