Technical parameters at the mercy of commercials ..err Politics

Any one who has basic understanding of power plants would know that every equipment and the power plant as a total requires how much power to run.

For example: a standard 270 MW plant would require so much, a super critical 800 MW boiler would burn so much coal etc.

One wonders though why would the total consumption for a power plant change so much.

As usual, the ambiguities come from one of Reliance for one of the largest power plants in the world (Sasan UMPP)

Here is a brief history of the estimates given by Reliance on its expected coal consumption:

1. In 2007, when Sasan was awarded to Reliance it initially quoted that it would require 16 mtpa (million tonnes per annum) to run its plant
2. In 2007, Reliance quoted that it can mine 25 mtpa of coal from the mines it was awarded. This was 9 mtpa more than the requirement.
3. As per the approved mine plant, Reliance was allowed to use 4 mtpa beyond the requirement of the plant
4. In 2014, NDA government cancelled the coal license to the tune of 5 mtpa from Reliance. Remember this should still allow 20 mtpa to be mined and that should be more than sufficient for the 16 mtpa requirement
5. In 2015, Reliance states that it underestimated the coal requirement, which now stands at 19 mtpa. And since it was allowed an additional 4 mtpa as per the mining plant, it now claims that the new coal block be allotted.

I wonder if there is any plant whose coal consumption increased by 25% than previous estimates. And that too for one of the most efficient plants!!