Neyveli Thermal Power Station-II has said that the Board of NLC India Limited has backed a move to import coal and blend it with lignite for the first time.
Recently, the Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation Limited (TANTRANSCO) had flagged the issue of the State Load Despatch Centre experiencing frequent outage of Neyveli Thermal Station-II units. The reason stated was boiler tube leakage and lignite conservation, leading to shortage in availability and overloading, the State Load Despatch Centre had said in a communication to the Southern Regional Power Committee (SRPC).
The Neyveli Thermal Power Station-II has a capacity of 1,470 MW, consisting of 7 units of 210 MW each. The power generated from here is shared by Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and the Union Territory of Puducherry. The State Load Despatch Centre had pointed out that during 2022-23, the availability of Stage I units was 61.74% and that of Stage II units was 71.27 %. From July 2022, it had come down substantially.
At Neyveli Thermal Station-II Units, there were 70 forced outages and seven planned outages between May 1, 2022, and May 4, 2023. The Unit-2 was under outage for 162 days during the 365 days of consideration and was taken out 16 times, as per the data presented by Southern Regional Load Despatch Centre to SRPC.
In its response, the NLC said three units at Neyveli Thermal Station-II were under operation and they were healthy, and its board had supported the import of coal (7-8%) for blending. Tenders need to be floated for the import of coal and it would take four to five months to receive them. The technical specification of lignite would be quoted in the tender and the coal having the same gross calorific value and specifications would be imported and blended, it added.
The issue of low availability of NLC Thermal Station would be taken up by the Technical Coordination Sub-Committee of SRPC, and might be escalated to Central Electricity Authority/Union Ministry of Power, as per the agenda of upcoming meeting of SRPC.
The State met an all-time high demand of 19,387 MW and all-time high daily consumption of 415.37 million units on April 20. According to the policy note of the State Energy Department for 2023-24, the State had executed long-term power purchase agreements based on the allocation of power from the central generating stations by the Union Ministry of Power. Agreements had been executed for 7,170 MW. However, at a time, the peak availability is only 5,900 MW, it said.
