Brace yourself for more power cuts because the city’s electricity mainstays, Kolaghat and Bakreswar, are running out of steam.

The two power plants, already performing well below capacity, are short of coal and could be left without any after a few days if Jharkhand is unable to resume supply.

Both plants were saddled with huge quantities of wet coal that can’t be used for power generation after heavy rain on June 16 and 17. Rain hampered production in the coal mines of Jharkhand, too, and supply to Kolaghat and Bakreswar dwindled in the past week.

Sources in the power department said the situation was unlikely to improve unless there was uninterrupted sunshine for some days in the Asansol-Ranigunge coal belt.

But chances of that are remote, going by the Met office’s forecast of heavy rain in Gangetic Bengal and Jharkhand during the next 24 hours.

Officials of the West Bengal Power Development Corporation admitted there had been no improvement in the power scenario since last week.

“Our generation was first hit when we started receiving wet coal from the Ranigunge coal belt. Now, over the past few days, supply of coal has dwindled. As a result, our stocks are fast getting depleted. At Kolaghat, we have coal to last three days, while in Bakreswar we have coal to last us five days. If the supply of good-quality coal does not improve immediately, we may have to shut down a few units,” said S. Mahapatra, the corporation’s managing director.

Kolaghat has about 60,000 tonnes of coal left and Bakreswar has 55,000 tonnes. There are five 210-MW units in Kolaghat and three in Bakreswar.

“We are generating about 750 MW in Kolaghat, which is about 300 MW less than capacity. The Bakreswar plant is producing about 570 MW, about 60 MW less,” the official said.

Officials of the CESC are hoping the city’s demand for power will remain below 1,300 MW if it rains and the weather is cool. “In that case, we expect a shortfall of between 100-120 MW. But if the day is clear and humid, the shortfall can be higher. Everything depends on what the supply is from the state grid,” one of them said.