Supply from pvt thermal plants down by 50-60 pc: Senthilbalaji

“Private thermal power producers were supplying power to Tangedco at 100 per cent earlier. Now it has gone down to 40 to 50 per cent. It is mainly due to coal price hikes and shortage. But we were able to manage it by increasing the generation in our own thermal power plants,” the Minister told reporters after chairing a review meeting on consumer complaints.

When asked about low coal stock in Tangedco’s thermal power stations, he said all of them had coal stock of four to five days. “We are now in a position where if we use the coal for a day’s generation, we have to source and stock the same quantity,” he said, adding that the supply from mines was reduced due to low generation of the utility’s thermal power stations. “Now we have increased power generation to 70 per cent in the last few months. Earlier it was only 58 per cent,” he said. The State has asked the Coal Ministry to increase supply in line with rise in generation.

Due to coal shortage, Coastal Energen Power Ltd which supplies 558 MW to Tangedco under long-term power purchase remained under forced outage, while NTPL, a joint venture of Tangedco and NLC, is under shutdown from September 28.

Earlier, the Minister said 98 per cent of the total 3.83 lakh complaints received through the new consumer complaint number have been resolved. “Out of the nine regions in the State, North and South Chennai account for 75 per cent of all complaints. We held the review meeting to find ways to reduce the consumers’ complaints in the Chennai regions,” he said.