Prospects of Delhi blackout : Situation critical despite rising coal stock at thermal plants

New Delhi: A day after Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain sounded an alarm over the depleting level of coal stock at thermal power plants, a government official said the supply of the fossil fuel improved slightly on Thursday, but the situation still remains critical.

Jain on Wednesday expressed fears of a blackout in the city, saying the actual stock of coal for thermal plants at Dadri, Jhajjar and Badarpur could meet the requirements of only 1.63 days. 

"The situation improved a little bit over past 24 hours, but the situation is still critical," a Delhi government official said. 

Power department's data showed the stock of coal had come down to 91,129 metric ton on Wednesday and increased to 1,01,985 metric ton on Friday. The coal requirement of the three plants is 56,000 metric ton per day. Normally, a stock of 8,40,000 metric ton coal - required to meet 15 days' need - is maintained for the three thermal power plants in Delhi-NCR. 

Jain has sought Centre's intervention through a letter to the Union Power Minister R K Singh. The combined capacity of the three power plants that supply electricity to Delhi is 2,000 MW.

Thermal generation stations Dadri I & II, Jhajjar and Badarpur have been facing an "acute coal shortage" for many days due to non-availability of transportation rakes, 

Jain had said in his letter to the Union power minister. This is the second time that the Delhi government has alleged that the Indian Railways wasn't providing wagons for transportation of coal to these plants. 

In May, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to direct the Railways to provide rakes for transporting coal to the power plants. The power demand in Delhi came down today with the onset of the monsoon. 

The peak power demand was 6,118 MW at 2.57 PM yesterday. It came down to 5,671 MW at 3.33 PM today, State Load Disptach Centre data showed. The peak power demand this year touched an all-time high of 6,934 MW on June 8 and remained consistently above 6,500 MW in past many days.