PRAKASH portal launched to bring better coordination for coal supplies

This is an important step in ensuring adequate availability and optimum utilization of coal at thermal power plants.

The Union Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy (IC) and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Shri RK Singh and the Union Minister for Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Pralhad Joshi jointly launched PRAKASH (Power Rail Koyla Availability through Supply Harmony) portal here today.

The Portal aims at bringing better coordination for coal supplies among all stakeholders viz - Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal, Coal India, Railways and power utilities. This is an important step in ensuring adequate availability and optimum utilization of coal at thermal power plants.

The Portal is designed to help in mapping and monitoring the entire coal supply chain for power plants, viz –

Coal Stock at supply end (mines),

coal quantities/ rakes planned,

coal quantity in transit and

coal availability at power generating station.

Speaking at the launch of the Portal, Power Minister Shri RK Singh said that it would help in better planning. He also expressed hope that "The Portal will evolve with time as we learn from it." Union Minister Shri Pralhad Joshi congratulated all stakeholders for the launch of the portal and assured of all support by the Ministry of Coal.

Benefits of Portal to the Stakeholders

The portal makes available following information on a single platform -

Coal company will be able to track stocks and the coal requirement at power stations for effective production planning

Indian Railways will plan to place the rakes as per actual coal available at siding and stock available at power stations.

Power stations can plan future schedules by knowing rakes in the pipeline and expected time to Reach.

Stock at power generating station

Ministry of Power /Ministry of Coal/ CEA/ POSOCO can review the overall availability of coal at thermal power plants in different regions

The present mechanism to review the coal supply situation consists of an inter-ministerial group that has officials from Ministries of Power, Coal, Railways, CEA, power utilities and coal companies. This group holds weekly meetings to review the coal supply situation as well as railway logistics. It was observed that this mechanism faced several issues such as scattered information, the correctness of data from different organizations, timely availability of data, etc. This often led to difficulties in decision making

To address such situations, Ministry of Power asked CEA for establishment of a transparent mechanism to monitor the coal availability at loading site (CIL,SCCL), placement of rakes by Railways (CRIS) and availability of coal at power stations (NTPC / DVC /State utilities) and also directed NTPC to facilitate CEA for portal development.

PRAKASH Portal is developed by NTPC and sources data from different stakeholders such as Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) and coal companies. All reports are available in PDF/Excel format. However, to present information in a user-friendly method, the Portal gives a graphical representation of reports with details shown on the map of India.

Currently, the Portal will make available four reports as detailed below -

Daily Power Plant Status

This report gives Station data related to power generation, coal receipt, consumption, and stock.

The report can be generated utility wise, state-wise and sector-wise (default utility-wise).

Periodic Power Plant Status

The report gives Station data related to power generation, coal receipt, consumption and stock for the selected period.

Coal materialization based on dispatch by coal company is available.

Plant Exception Report

This report gives materialization and rakes in the pipeline through Rail.

Coal Dispatch Report

The report gives coal subsidiary wise dispatch for a particular period.

It also gives source wise details of coal dispatch.

A dispatch trend is also shown.

Plantwise and siding wise details are available.

(With Inputs from PIB)