Running On Empty: NTPC power plants have coal stocks of only 8.5 days

The critically low stocks at NTPC plants reflect the overall coal situation across all thermal power plants in India.

India's largest thermal power generating company, NTPC Ltd, has coal stocks for only 8.5 days at its power plants, the company's management said in an investor and analyst call on October 28.

Per government stocking norms, there ought to be 20 to 26 days of coal in non-pithead plants, and 12 to 17 days of the fuel in pithead power plants.

"Right now, the coal stock at (non-pithead) NTPC stations is around 8.5 days. The coal stock at pithead stations is lesser. The situation is a bit tight at the moment," NTPC's management said during the call.

The management, however, added that the situation is likely to improve from the end of this month thanks to higher production, which was affected during the monsoons, which are now over.

The critically low stocks at NTPC plants reflect the overall coal situation across all thermal power plants in India. This is because with 27 coal-based power stations, state-run NTPC is the largest thermal power generating company in the country. The company has a coal-based installed capacity of 52,610 MW. Besides, it has nine additional coal-based power plants totalling 7,664 MW, through its joint ventures and subsidiaries.

Coal stocks at India’s domestic coal-based power plants hit the year’s lowest, at 18.55 million tonnes (MT), in the week starting October 23. Even now, the situation remains the same, with stocks of 18.6 MT on October 28,  per the latest Central Electricity Authority (CEA) data.

The reasons for the dismal stocks range from low production due to monsoons, supply issues due to logistical constraints, and robust power demand even at night, when renewable energy sources do not help in the absence of storage solutions.

At present, the stocks are much lower than during peak summer, between April and July, when coal stocks hovered around 33-35 MT. Even when the country saw its all-time high power demand of 239.978 GW (239,978 MW) on September 1, coal stocks at domestic coal-based plants stood at 27.59 MT.

On October 28, NTPC reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 4,726.4 crore for the second quarter of the financial year 2023-24, up 38.3 percent from Rs 3,417.67 crore in the year-ago period.

The board approved paying the first interim dividend of Rs 2.25 per share for FY23-24. The dividend will be paid on November 23.

The total revenue from operations in the September 2023 quarter was Rs 44,983.35 crore, up 1.8 percent from Rs 44,175.03 crore reported in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year.