Nellore: AP Genco’s Damodaram Sanjeevaiah power plant located near Krishnapatnam may not start power generation till the coal stock is at least 4 lakh tonnes. It may be recalled that the two 800 MW units have stopped generation from almost a month because of paucity for coal. As of now 1.2 lakh tonne coal is available following the arrival of a ship load of coal few days back from Paradeep at the power plant, which has the capacity to produce 1600 MW (800 MW X 2 units).
Genco sources said that they have received a communication from their higher authorities to wait till there is sufficient stock of coal. “The coal requirement is 8000 tonnes per day to run each unit,” a source said. They said their higher-ups are not in a hurry to commence production because the demand is low in view of winter season. Moreover wind and solar power is available to manage existing demand, an engineer said.
He said arrangements have been made to transport three lakh tonne coal from Talcher mines in Odisha in next one month. “We will generate around 600 to 700 MW instead of full capacity of 800 MW from each unit even if coal is available because of lack of demand as of now,” the engineer said under condition of anonymity.
