CM Orders Coal Procurement Push to Revive Yadadri Power Generation

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has directed Energy department officials to begin arrangements for procuring coal from Mahanadi Coalfields and Coal India, following a halt in power generation at the Yadadri Thermal Power Station caused by a coal shortage.

Chairing a high-level review of the Energy sector on Wednesday, the Chief Minister asked Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka to convene a meeting with Union Coal Minister Kishan Reddy to resolve the coal crisis affecting power generation in the State. Officials of the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation (TGGENCO) were instructed to restore generation at the Yadadri station to its full installed capacity before the Dussehra festival.

During the review, Revanth Reddy sought details on the supply of quality coal to thermal units in the State. Officials explained that the Yadadri station requires G9 grade coal, which Singareni Collieries does not have the blocks to produce, and that there is no immediate prospect of such coal being mined by the company.

The Chief Minister questioned the decision to build the plant around a technology that depends solely on G9 quality coal unavailable within Singareni. The meeting also examined the station's location far from the pithead and the resulting logistics costs borne by the State.

Officials told the review that the plant was built at a distance for political reasons during the previous BRS government, and that the absence of coal was why full-scale generation had not been achieved there. Official reports place the additional financial burden on the State from supplying coal to the thermal centre at ₹40,000 crore.