SINGAPORE-based drybulk shipping company Trust Energy Resources, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Power, has

RELATED ARTICLES NTPC will get coal even without FSA for 2012-13 Coal crisis to hit 12,500 mw capacity addition: NTPC Let CIL e-auction surplus coal of captive mines Notices to 27 firms for delay in coal, lignite mines development Demand supply gap of coal increases to 161 million tonnes

begun shipping coal to Mundra to fire India’s first ultra-mega power project (UMPP) that goes on stream by early October. The Mundra power project banks on imported coal.

Capesize ships, operated by Trust Energy, have started delivery of coal from Tata Power’s coalmines in Indonesia. The power company owns 30 per cent of PT Bumi Resources in Indonesia. The mines are producing around 60 million tonnes of coal, and will scale up to 75 million tonnes by 2012-end.

S Ramakrishnan, executive director of Tata Power, told Financial Chronicle that the Mundra project at present requires around two million tonnes of coal.

“Over 0.5 million tonnes has already been delivered to Mundra to start trial operations,” he said.

Capesize ships are large drybulk carriers that can transit via Cape Horn in South America or the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, and range up to 2,20,000 deadweight tonnage or DWT. DWT refers to the weight a ship can safely carry.

“The first unit of 4,000 mw (5x800 mw) power project will start the synchronisation process by early October. The process takes around three months, and we hope to start commercial operations by January-end,” said Ramakrish

nan. Beginning January, one new unit of 800 mw will go on stream in every three to four months, until the entire 4,000 mw plant goes operational by mid2013.

However, high cost of imported coal from Indonesia is expected to dent profitability at Mundra and the company is attempting all measures to reduce the impact of competitive pricing.

“We are exploring alternatives to mitigate this situation to the extent possible.

We believe that blending of coal can offset the price to some extent. Therefore, we are sourcing low grade coal from Indonesia, Africa and other existing mines and will do trial runs to see if they would be capable of reducing the cost of power for Mundra UMPP too, as we are using such blending in

sub-critical boilers at our Trombay thermal power station,“ Tata Power managing director Anil Sardana told Financial Chronicle.

The coal at Mundra is imported through the new coal terminal, set up by Mundra Port & Special Economic Zone (MPSEZ).

The terminal has unloading cranes and a direct 9 km conveyer facility to deliver coal to the power plant directly. The terminal also has 22 hectares coal stockyard.

“The two-berth terminal with 22 metre draught has an annual capacity of 50 million tonne, while the third berth, which is part of the terminal, is yet to be mechanised,“ said Rajeeva Sinha, director of MPSEZ.

The terminal has a discharge rate of 96,000 tonnes per day.

The terminal, which is 7-8 km away from Mundra Port, caters to one more mega power plant -the 4,600 mw plant being set up by Adani Power. “Its four units, having a total capacity of 1,980 mw, are already operational,“ Sinha said.

Trust Energy, set up in 2007, owns two Capesize vessels and has chartered three more Capesize ships.

“The charter rates have come down, and we are looking to charter a couple of more Capesize vessels,“ Ramakrishnan said.

The Tata Power plant has been awaiting PowerGrid's power evacuation lines to go operational by September-end.