Bokaro | Jan 08, 2015: Tenughat Thermal Power Plant (TTPS) on Wednesday shut down one of its 210MW units owing to a shortage of coal created by the ongoing Coal India strike. The other two power plants of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) in the district are all set to reduce production.
TTPS is a 420MW plant and it requires 7,000 tonnes of coal per day for power production. The plant gets most of its from CCL mines. Though one of its units is operational, closure of another unit at around 12.30pm is likely to cause power crisis in several areas, including Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad.
TTPS chief engineer Ramavtar Sahu said they shut down one of the units to ensure the other unit runs comfortably until the strike ends. "We are left with limited stock of coal and it is not possible to run both the units simultaneously. The coal supply to the plant has been disrupted since Tuesday due to the coal workers' strike," said Sahu.
The coal workers strike in protest against disinvestment and restructuring of Coal India has set alarm bells ringing in the power and steel plants here. Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) has also voiced concern and indicated that the strike is likely to hamper its operations. Like Tuesday, production and dispatch of coal in all the 19 coal mines belonging to Central Coalfield Limited (CCL) and Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) in Bermo were stalled.
A majority of workers refrained from attending duty on the second day in Dhori, Kathara, Bokaro and Kargili (B&K) mines of CCL. Besides, coal washeries and a BCCL coal mine in Damodar suffered similar manpower crisis. Coal production has come to a grinding halt while coal dispatch remained suspended whole day.
Lakhanlal Mahto, general secretary of United Coal Workers Union, said their protest is against the government's policy. "We had a meeting with the authorities on Tuesday evening, but it failed to get desired results. The strike will continue. In Bermo, more than 12,000 workers remained away from work," he said.
Of the two power plants of DVC in the district, the 630MW Bokaro Thermal Power Station (BTPS) has been shut since December 2 due to low system demand. The largest 860MW Chandrapura Thermal Power Plant (CTPS) is operating with remaining coal stock amnd maintaining 720MW production.
CTPS chief engineer B N Sah said: "Of the eight units, we are running seven as one is in capital repair. The coal stock with us will be able to maintain production level till Thursday. If coal crisis persists, we either have to reduce our generation or close some of the units," said Sahu.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)