Patna, Feb. 10: Restoration of the merry go round (MGR) track at Kahalgaon is nearing completion but that is not going to have much of an impact on the power sector, in the next 48 hours at least.

Sources in the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) said the restoration work on the MGR track could be completed by late Thursday evening after which trial operation would start.

“But that does not mean generation of power at the seven power units of Kahalgaon would start by Friday or even Saturday,” an NTPC official told The Telegraph.

“It will take some time to start the generation of power supply at all the seven plants of Kahalgaon. First, we want to create a good stock of coal, which would take some time. Generation at the seven units would start one by one and not together,” the official said.

Unit 1 (210MW) and unit 5 (500MW) are functioning since Sunday, the day MGR derailed, with the plant getting just two rakes of coal a day. Today we received three rakes of coal from the railways, a source in the NTPC said.

NTPC requires 42,000-45,000 metric tonnes everyday to run all the seven plants at full capacity load or at least 12-13 rakes (each rake of railway carries around 3,500-4,000 metric tonnes) per day, the sources added.

The derailment of the MGR system on Sunday night had triggered a coal crisis for power plants at Kahalgaon, leading to a huge shortfall in overall generation.

The state today received 940MW of electricity from the central sector, more than what it has been receiving in the past five days. The scheduled allocation from the Centre, after the decision to cut down power supply is 1,722MW.

The state received around 70MW from Barauni thermal power plant.

“The state has a fixed share of megawatt of electricity from each of the seven units at Kahalgaon, which generates 2,340MW of electricity. Therefore, if generation at any of the plants is stopped, it directly affects the power sector,” a board official said.

Out of a generation of 2,340MW, the state was supposed to receive around 423MW from both stage I and II units of Kahalgaon but at present the state is receiving around 70-80MW of electricity.

Of the 1,010MW, the board normally provides 413MW to the state capital, which remains unaffected with the cut in central allocation, 350MW for emergency services, leaving around 200MW for the rest of the state.

Essential services for which 350MW was required included 60MW to Nepal (as per agreement with the Centre), 90MW to railways, 75MW to continuous process industries, 35MW to defence, airports, agriculture university, dairy among others. It provides another 20MW to powerhouses, 20MW for Buddha tourist circuit and 50MW is lost in transmission.

Against the state’s peak demand of 2,500MW, it was solely dependent on the central sector allocation to meet its energy requirement in view of its negligible power generation.

The state has been reeling under a massive power crisis since February 4 following the Centre’s abrupt decision to slash 70MW of power supply to the state. To make matters worse, a goods train carrying coal to Kahalgaon unit derailed, bringing power generation at seven units to a halt.