Captive Coal Plants to Boost Power Output
These plants primarily supply power to industries such as aluminium, steel, cement and oil refining. Generators have been directed to sell surplus electricity through power exchanges.
New Delhi: India has ordered 112 captive coal-fired power plants to operate at full capacity from October 1 until the end of the year to meet an expected rise in electricity demand, according to a power ministry order dated September 25. The directive, issued under emergency provisions of the Electricity Act, applies to captive plants with an installed capacity of at least 50 megawatts. These plants primarily supply power to industries such as aluminium, steel, cement and oil refining. Generators have been directed to sell surplus electricity through power exchanges.
The order covers plants belonging to companies including Vedanta, Tata Steel, Hindalco Industries, JSW Steel, UltraTech Cement, Reliance Industries, Indian Oil, Bharat Aluminium, Hindustan Zinc and Nayara Energy. The plants must submit weekly reports to the Central Electricity Authority on their generation, captive consumption, electricity sales, available capacity and coal stocks. Separately, the ministry extended until December 31 an earlier emergency order requiring Tata Power’s imported coal-fired plant at Mundra in Gujarat to operate at full capacity. Nearly 40 per cent of India’s coal-fired power plants have critically low fuel stocks following a surge in demand amid hotter-than-usual weather associated with El Niño, according to government data reported by Reuters.