Despite NTPC chairman R S Sharma’s exclamation that the PSU’s thermal power plants are not suffering from a shortage of coal, the power ministry is reporting that 40 per cent of the navratna company’s power plants have reached a critical stage of shortage.

While unveiling NTPC’s benchmark beating returns for the first quarter of 2009, Sharma said “generation has not suffered because of coal availability.” However the week to follow produced numerous reports, including MoS for power Bharatsinh Solanki’s statement in Parliament that “some of the thermal power plants of NTPC are reportedly running short of coal”.

The statement is matched by Central Electricity Authority data which points to six plants with critical stock levels of less than seven days coal supply, as of August 3. Of those six plants, four are storing less than four days supply, considered a super critical situation.

However Sharma’s statement is not entirely inaccurate. An influx in imported coal has helped even those plants with just 70 per cent of the coal supply needed to maintain plant load factors between 78 to 100 per cent.