Coal shortage at MetturÂ’s 600 MW unit

One of the thermal units at Mettur generating 600 MW has been shutdown as the coal scheduled to arrive from West Bengal and Odisha has been delayed due to the floods in the mines. Currently, the plan is to manage it with wind power and open market purchase as stopping a unit is just a precautionary measure, informs Vikram Kapur, Chairman, Tangedco. Six ships were waiting at Paradip port to evacuate coal from the mines in Odisha but were unable to move due to heavy rain. Tangedco used to get nearly 40,000 tonne of coal per day by rail but recently, only 12,000 tonne per day has been coming into the state. With a combined capacity of 1,440 MW, Mettur has five power generation units, of them four units are of 210 MW capacity each and one is of 600 MW.