Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday urged the Centre to direct coal firms Western Coalfields Ltd., Singareni Collieries Company Ltd. and Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. (MCL) to supply allocated coal to Karnataka as its two major thermal power stations has only a day’s coal stock to generate power. Mr. Siddaramaiah, along with Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar, called on Union Minister of State for Power R.K. Singh in New Delhi and appraised him of the fact that the Raichur Thermal Power Station and Ballari Thermal Power Station are the mainstays of the State grid and contribute nearly 70 million units per day. However, RTPS has only a day’s coal stock, while the BTPS has less than a day’s stock.
The State urged the Centre to direct the WCL to supply 13.11 lakh tonnes, including 5.85 lakh tonnes of coal MCL to supply 13.75 lakh tonnes and additionally 6 lakh tonnes of coal during during October 2017 - March 2018.
The Chief Minister requested Mr Singh to direct the SCCL to supply 45 lakh tonnes during October, 2017-March, 2018 to RTPS to ensure regularly generation of power.
The delegation also demanded allocation of Ghogarpalli and Did Side of Ghogarpalli Coal blocks in Odisha to Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) at the earliest.
In another memorandum, Mr. Siddaramaiah urged the Centre to review the transmission charges collected from Karnataka.
There has been a significant increase in the transmission charges paid to Power Grid Corporation India Ltd. (PGCIL) by the State owing to the amendment to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission Regulations 2010, which came into effect from May 2015.
Owing to the amendment, Karnataka has paid high transmission charges of ₹237.19 crore in August with the share of 38.11% of the total transmission charges of Southern Region of ₹622.45 crore.
An increase from 19.46% to 38.11 %, an increase of nearly 20 % after the amendment.
Though charges were not reflective of power drawn from the connected grid switch (CGS) for consumption of Karnataka. “It has happened to the change in the methodology of calculation,” the memorandum said.
Transmission charges increased from ₹0.33 per unit in 2015 to ₹0.94 per unit in 2017-18.
