SCCL Violating Norms, Sending Us Low Grade Coal: TGGenco
The power generation corporation said SCCL was also violating the fuel supply agreement it has with TGGenco with a major portion of coal supplied to its thermal stations below the agreed to grade.
Hyderabad: Telangana’s thermal power plants are creaking and groaning and TGGenco is extremely unhappy on this count, and has held another state-owned entity, SCCL, as the culprit for multiple problems facing its coal-fired power plants in the state.
Such has been the magnitude of this problem of coal of poor calorific value with an additional burden of high ash content being supplied to the Telangana Power Generation Corporation Limited, that TGGenco has been practically flooding the Singareni Collieries Company Limited with letters complaining about coal quality, and how this was resulting in several serious problems at its thermal power plants.
Making matters even worse for SCCL, TGGenco, in its latest letter on October 14 to the coal mining company, accused it of supplying better quality coal to other states.
“It has come to our notice that SCCL is supplying higher grade coal to other states whereas the lower grade coal is being supplied to TGGenco thermal stations,” the letter said. This letter from TGGenco to SCCL, is the 7th in a series of such communications complaining about coal quality. The first letter on this subject was sent to SCCL this May.
The latest letter further said with SCCL mines located in the Telangana, “it is requested that priority may be given to the TGGenco thermal units in supplying the higher grade coal to meet the increased power demand in the state,” particularly as TGGenco “is a state owned PSU (public sector unit).”
The power generation corporation also complained that because of the poor coal quality, it was unable to produce electricity at the rated capacities of its thermal stations. As a result, TGGenco said, among several other serious consequences, it was also losing out on fall in fixed charges rev revenues it can earn.
“The TGERC is approving annual fixed charges for thermal stations based on the normative plant availability of 85percent. Any reduction in plant availability against the normative, the fixed charges shall be regulated on a prorated basis. Due to receipt of poor quality coal,” TGGenco said it was unable to push the declared capacities of its plants adversely affecting one of its revenue streams.
Because of the pool quality of SCCL coal, TGGenco said it was being forced to operate at partial loads resulting in to loss of generation, and this was also increasing the wear and tear of boilers and because of the high ash content, the thermal plants were facing serious burden of ash evacuation.
The power generation corporation said SCCL was also violating the fuel supply agreement it has with TGGenco with a major portion of coal supplied to its thermal stations below the agreed to grade. SCCL was told that the coal being supplied was only capable of producing 2800-3400 kilocalories per kg of coal burnt against the agreed to quality of 4375 kilocalories coal that SCCL is supposed to supply.
TGGenco explained that the boilers of KTPS-VI (500MW), KTPS Stage-VII (800MW), KTPP Stage-I (500MW), BTPS (4X270MW), YTPS (5X800MW) were designed for higher grade coal with gross calorific value of 4375 kilocalories per kg of coal. SCCL, as per its fuel supply contract with TGGenco, is required to supply 28.872 million tonnes per year.
TGGenco says poor quality SCCL coal is:
Resulting in reduction of Plant Load Factor against TGERC norms, causing loss of revenue;
Causing unnatural wear and tear of power plant boilers;
Forcing increased auxiliary power consumption;
Resulting in additional freight and handling charges because thermal stations are being forced to use more coal of poor quality;
Piling up of high levels of ash, and problems of getting rid of the ash.
