In a major set back for power consumers in Western India, 7,563 Mw of power generation capacities in Gujarat have closed down due to lack of coal availability, technical snag and financial issues. This is more than a quarter of state’s total installed 18,510 Mw capacities.
As per the details provided by the Western Regional Load Despatch Centre (WRLDC), out of the total forced shutdown of 20,245 Mw, Gujarat faced over 7,600 Mw of shutdown by different power units.
This included 4,290 Mw of Adani Power’s 4,620-Mw Mundra power project and 1,600 Mw of Tata Power’s 4000-Mw Mundra UMPP. Adani had to stop power generation at its three 330 Mw units due to coal shortage, while all five of 660 Mw units have to be closed due to technical snag and payment default by the buyer utility. APL did not reply to an emailed query on the matter.
Tata Power had closed down two of its five 800 Mw units due to technical issues. “Unit-2 of the UMPP has been down due to a boiler tube leakage while Unit-4 got down due to reheater isolator leakage Wednesday evening. 2400 Mw is functional,” a company statement said.
Notably, about 5,100 Mw of generation capacities in the state have closed down in the past one week alone. This has raised an alarm for the power utilities, which have started looking for alternate source of power.
Also, some of the generating units by Essar Power (516 Mw), Torrent Power’s Sugen (382.5 Mw), Gujarat Paguthan Energy Company (218 Mw) and some units by Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Ltd (450 Mw) have also closed down due to reasons ranging from low demand to shortage of gas.
Meanwhile, Adani Power and Tata Power shares lost by about 3 per cent and 2 per cent respectively on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday after the buzz about plant shutdown spread. The benchmark index, Sensex was up 0.2 per cent.