“During the year 2018-19, the loss of Tangedco has increased by Rs 4,862 crore mainly due to increase in the cost of power purchase and generation as well as an increase in employee and finance costs which together summed up to the additional cost of Rs 7,396 crore despite the increase in revenue by Rs 2,533 crore in 2018-19,” the CAG report said. The report also came down heavily on Tangedco’s coal management which resulted in wasteful expenditure of over Rs 4,000 crore in the last five years 2014-2019.

Pointing out that the cost of coal constituted 95.54 to 98.41 per cent of the total cost of generation of power during 2014-19 and has a significant impact on power tariff on consumers, it said that operational efficiency of thermal power stations is regulated through Station Heat Rate (SHR), which depends on the quantity and quality of coal. “The actual SHR was in excess of the norm stipulated by TNERC in all TPS, which resulted in excess consumption of 56.85 lakh MT of coal valuing Rs 2,317.46 crore throughout 2014-19. Moreover, Tangedco could not reduce specific coal consumption despite the usage of a higher proportion of imported coal having a high calorific value in all TPS,” it said.

The CAG noted the failure of the Tangedco to analyse the reason for the drop in gross calorific value during consumption immediately upon its receipt. “As against the normative loss of calorific value of 120 kcal per kg, the actual loss of calorific value during transportation from mines to discharge ports ranged between 140 to 2,256 kcal per kg resulting in wasteful expenditure of Rs 2,012.65 crore,” it said, adding that there is no periodical physical verification system in the load ports and Tangedco has not determined transit loss for the past 18 years citing a pending legal case. “Tangedco suffered generation loss of 844 million units valued at Rs 171.57 crore due to poor quality of coal during 2014-19,” it noted.