Tangedco coal stocks up as demand dips

With heavy rains across the state, the peak power demand has come down to 12,000 MW from about 14,000 MW in the last week of October The daily power consumption has also come down to 230 million units a day from 270 million units in the last month-end.

But the thermal power stations of the Tangedco which was facing a coal shortage with its stock declining to about two days to 1.15 lakh metric tonne while the private power stations were shut down owing to coal shortage. On Saturday, Tangedco’s coal stock has gone up to 2.92 lakh MT which could help thermal plants to run for four days. Tuticorin and Mettur thermal power plants have coal stock for about six days while North Chennai thermal power plant have stock for 1.5 days.

A senior Tangedco official said that the power demand will continue to remain around 12,500 MW to 13,000 MW for the rest of the monsoon period. “Due to cool weather conditions, the usage of air conditioners will be much less compared to the summer months. Also, farmers will not be using the agricultural pump sets during the monsoon, ” the official said. The official added that this lean demand period would be used to build up the coal stock in the thermal power plants.