The severe coal shortage that led to power production crisis in the state is expected to ease in the coming days. Sanjeev Kaushal,MD,Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) on Wednesday said the crisis continues but there has been an improvement in the situation. We are still hand-to-mouth as far as coal is concerned but the situation is improving. We are expecting that the plants in Haryana would be back to normal in the coming days, he said. Haryana has three thermal power plants and the largest plant in Panipat (1360 MW) was down to its last day of stocks on October 16 affecting power production. Kaushal said the plant received on Wednesday almost double the number of rakes which were required per day. We got 12-13 rakes while we need 7 each day. If we continue to get sufficient supply of coal in the coming days,we will be able to build a stock to tide over a no-supply week, he said. A similar situation was faced by the state as also several other neighbouring states in 2009 as well. On Dussehra day,there was a holiday at Coal India Limited and in case the coal is not loaded on that day it ends up having a ripple effect in the coming days. Coal comes from long distances and any disruption in traffic means that more power plants have to dig into their reserves, Kaushal said. He said that the CIL workers have also threatened to go on strike and there is desperation among power generation companies to have enough stocks. We are worried. The situation had improved as far as the present crisis is concerned but in case there is a strike by the workers it will lead to a major crisis across the country. Everyone wants to have enough stocks before that happens. The government had a round of talks with the workers yesterday (Tuesday). We do not know what was the outcome of the meeting, he said. Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said on Monday that Coal India had stepped up dispatches to help power plants. News agencies had reported that CIL unions had also reached an agreement with the government,ruling out the threatened three-day strike that would have forced more coal-fired plants to shut down. The latest data from Central Electricity Authority showed that on October 16,other than the Panipat plant,the Yamnunagar plant (600 MW) too was running on critical levels of coal with about five days of coal left. The power plant at Khedar (1200 MW),according to the CEA had eight days of stocks left.
