Tata Power’s 4,000-mw Mundra ultra-mega power plant was shut down after its conveyor belt caught fire on Wednesday, according to sources in the Power System Operation Corporation (Posoco), responsible for supervising the national grid.
Conveyor belts carry coal at the plant. Since coal cannot be transported for feeding into boilers, generation has stopped from all the five units of the plant. Sources said the Mundra UMPP has informed Posoco,” Machines have been taken out for repair and there will be no generation for 7-10 days.”
Power from the plant is allocated to discoms in five states – Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Maharashtra.
Sources said at the time of accident, four units of the plant were in operation while one was under maintenance shutdown. After generation was halted at the Mundra UMPP, beneficiary states had to fall back on emergency measures such as use of reserve generation capacity and power import to maintain electricity supply.
While beneficiary states tapped into their gas-based generation capacities that were lying idle because of fuel shortage, NTPC chipped in by ramping up generation from its Mauda power plant in Maharashtra. Mundra is India’s first UMPP based on imported coal.