The Commission considers that a drop of 150 kCal/kg is a reasonable value for coal which is lying in the coal yard for a period of less than one month. Drops higher than these cannot be justified on any ground.

Commission has noted that after the fuel audit carried out by the Commission and fixation of the norm of  150 kCal/Kg loss between ‘coal as received’ and ‘coal as fired’, the drop in GCV of receipted coal and bunkered coal has come down significantly but not to the desired level.

The drop in GCV  at Ropar thermal plant has come down to 360 to 555 Kcal/Kg in last four months of 2012 after start of implementation of fuel audit report from around980 K Cal/Kg in previous years. At Lehra Mohabatt thermal plant, the corresponding drop has come around 100 to 200 in previous years.

The Commission in its tariff order 2012-13 has laid down that the drop in GCV of coal ‘as received’ and ‘as fired’ shall be around 150 kCal/kg. The commission had provided Rs. 858 lac for additional facilities/infrastructure at PSPCL thermal plants for its implementation of report.

The annual savings of Rs.306 crore is possible by implementing the fuel audit report. A further period of three months up to March 13 is taken a saving of Rs. 375 crore is possible. In case, PSERC decided to reduce this amount from total expenditure given by PSPCL in its ARR for 2013-14 the consumers are going to be benefitted in tariff reduction by about 10 paise per unit, disclosed a senior officer of PSPCL.

A senior thermal plant official said that practically the coal consumption is carried out on the basis of pre-determined per unit coal consumption. After every three months, these pre-determined values are adjusted after physical verification of coal at thermal plant.