Diversion of coal stock to the grey market and the lack of a methodology to accurately measure the stock could be the reasons for the 2.38 lakh tonnes of coal going missing from Tangedco’s North Chennai Thermal Power Station (NCTPS) at Athipattu in Tiruvallur district, according to a cross-section of experts and officials The Hindu spoke to.
“There is a huge grey market for resources like coal, iron ore and bauxite. The stock could have been diverted, and there is a lot of private industries which need the coal,” an analyst who tracks the sector said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He also pointed out that the phenomenon of missing of stock was common in coal mines, but such a huge quantity going missing from a power plant did come as a surprise.
The analyst also pointed out that the other way to divert coal was to show that the plant was not running efficiently.
“For instance, if you say a power plant is 35% efficient, for 100 units of coal used you should get 35 units of electricity. But you can show the plant is only 30% efficient and it could be the case of coal being shifted away,” he said.
Former officials of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission pointed out that there was no accurate method to measure the coal stock and all calculations were approximate. “Since there is no accurate method to measure the coal, it could be a calculation error,” they pointed out.
An official from a private coal power producer pointed out that the measurement error could not be so huge. “There could be a loss during transit. But that quantum should not be huge. The huge quantity missing could only happen in case of deliberate wrongdoing,” he added.
A senior official of Tangedco pointed out that the special committee formed to identify irregularities in the handling of coal had underlined coal shortage in the thermal power stations at Athipattu, Mettur and Thoothukudi. It was also announced by Electricity Minister V. Senthilbalaji on Friday.
“However, the committee is yet to identify how the coal has gone missing, and only after a complete investigation, the details of the quantity gone missing and the time period could be found out,” the official added.
The official also ruled out any power shortage owing to the missing coal. “At present, the coal stock at the North Chennai plant is available for nine days against the normal stock for 11 days. The power station consumes, on an average, 11,000 tonnes per day for generating electricity in the 1,200-MW plants,” he added.
The power managers are concerned about the coal stock gone missing, but they said the State would not face any power shortage because the peak demand was yet to cross even 15,000 MW against the total generating capacity of more than 18,500 MW.
