NALCO to import coal to overcome power crisis in Orissa

　　Navratna PSU, National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), will import 2 lakh tonnes of coal to tide over the power crisis in Orissa, which has led to the close down of 60 out of 960 smelting pots in its alumina smelter plant at Angul district.

　　Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), a Coal India unit, which supplies coal to NALCO from mines located in Talcher of Angul district, has been tripping on adequate supplies over last few weeks due to several reasons, including heavy rains, a dengue outbreak and strike by labourers. The plant requires about 18,000 tonne of coal per day to run the Captive Power Plant at the smelter plant in full capacity.

　　The power crisis came up when NALCO was forced to shut down one of the seven 110 megawatt units of its captive power plant due to shortage of coal. As against the requirement of 950 megawatt of power per day to run the smelter in full capacity, the production in power plant came down to about 640 megawatt. With the import of about 200 megawatt, the total power available to the smelter remained at 840 megawatt.