Indian Economy
PRAKASH Portal
- 04 Oct 2019
- 4 min read
The government has launched a web portal, PRAKASH (Power Rail Koyla Availability through Supply Harmony), with a view to improving coordination between the power, coal and railway ministries to ensure coal supplies to power plants.
- It has been developed by NTPC and sources data from different stakeholders such as Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) and coal companies.
- The portal is not accessible to the general public.
Background
- Present mechanism to review coal supply situation consists of an inter-ministerial group which has officials from Ministries of Power, Coal and Railways, Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Power Utilities and Coal companies.
- This group holds weekly meetings to review coal supply situation as well as railway logistics.
- It was observed that this mechanism faced several issues such as scattered information, correctness of data from different organizations, timely availability of data etc. This often led to difficulties in decision making.
Benefits of Portal to the Stakeholders
- Stakeholders including the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and Power System Operation Corporation Ltd. (POSOCO) can review overall availability of coal at thermal power plants in different regions. The Portal will make available related reports.
- Coal company will be able to track stocks and the coal requirement at power stations for effective production planning.
- Indian Railways will plan to place the rakes as per actual coal available.
- Power stations can plan future schedule by knowing rakes in pipe line and expected time to reach.
NTPC
- NTPC is India’s largest energy conglomerate with roots planted way back in 1975 to accelerate power development in India.
- Its mission is to provide reliable power and related solutions in an economical, efficient and environment friendly manner, driven by innovation and agility.
- NTPC became a Maharatna company in May 2010.
- It is located in New Delhi.
Central Electricity Authority
- CEA is an organization originally constituted under Section 3(1) of the repealed Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948, since substituted by Section 70 of the Electricity Act, 2003.
- One of its objectives is to formulate National Electricity Plan every five years for optimum utilization of available resources for power generation.
- It works under the Ministry of Power and is located in New Delhi.
Power System Operation Corporation Ltd.
- POSOCO is a Government of India enterprise that supervise and control all aspect concerning operations and manpower requirement of the Regional Load Despatch Centres (RLDCs) and the National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC).
- NLDC and RLDCs are responsible for operating the electricity market working in the country. They function under the Electricity Act, 2003.
- NLDC is located in New Delhi.
Centre for Railway Information System
- The Ministry of Railways set up CRIS as a society in July 1986.
- Its area of work includes information systems from all disciplines and functions of the Indian Railways.
- It is headquartered in New Delhi.
