Goyal urges railways, power ministries to ensure 24X7 power supply

New Delhi: To ensure 24X7 power supply to people, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday urged ministries of railways, power and coal to work in coordination and also asked power plants to increase their plant load factor (PLF), an official statement said.

Plant load factor is the amount of power a plant is producing as against its total capacity.

In this regard, Goyal, who is minister of railways and coal, chaired a detailed review meeting with R K Singh, Minister of State (IC) for Power and New and Renewable Energy here, the Ministry of Coal said in a statement.

"Goyal stressed on the necessity to increase PLF of various power plants of the country. He said all pithead plants with sufficient coal supply should run at 100 per cent PLF. (He) urged that team work and better coordination among ministries to ensure 24X7 power supply for the people of India," it said.

According to the statement, the minister has also instructed the officials of the three ministries to keep a close vigil on the power production and supply situation in the country and remain in contact with chief secretaries and power secretaries of the states.

At the meeting, the minister also reviewed power supply requirement during the ongoing summer and forthcoming winter season besides discussing short-term, medium-term and long-term measures to improve the coal stock position in power plants of the country.

"Further, the minister stressed on the need for states located far from mines to use provisions under 'flexibility of utilisation of coal' rules, so that this coal can be used by those power stations near the coal source," the statement said.

Gujarat and Maharashtra have already been using these provisions, it added. 

Besides Goyal and Singh, other senior officials of the three ministries also attended the meeting.