NTPC-SAIL power joint venture commissions first 250-MW unit expansion
21 Apr 2008
The first 250 MW thermal power project of NTPC SAIL Power Company Pvt. Ltd (NSPCL), the joint venture company between National Thermal Power Corporation and Steel Authority of India, has been commissioned at Bhilai.
The second 250 MW unit of the expansion project is scheduled to go on stream in September, 2008. BHEL is the boiler and turbine supplier for the project.
The two public sector companies have floated the equals joint venture firm NTPC SAIL Power Company Pvt. Ltd to operate captive power stations for SAIL's steel plants at Durgapur, Rourkela and Bhilai.
The inauguration of the 250 MW plant is part of the 310 MW capacity expansion for April 2008, with the commissioning of the 59.8 MW of the first phase of the Valuthur combined cycle gas extension project for the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board due later on Saturday, 26 April.
The generating capacity scheduled to be commissioned in May 2008 has been nearly doubled from 335 MW to 760 MW, of which 300 MW would be at West Bengal Power Development Corporation's Sagardigih power plant on 20 May, 250 MW at the Mejia Unit 6 of Damodar Valley Corporation on 21 May and 210 MW at Unit 5 of the Amarkantak thermal power station of the Madhya Pradesh Power Generating Company on 31 May.
The target for adding new power generating capacity in 2008-09 is11,000 MW, up from 9,200 MW in 2007-08, with the office of the Jairam Ramesh, minister of state for power and commerce,monitoring each project intensively monitored to meet the target deadline.
For instance Ramesh personally intervened with Chhattisgarh chief minister, Raman Singh to resolve the differences between the state government and NTPC in getting NTPC's 2x 500 Mw Sipat power project in Bilaspur, Chattisgarh, on stream in the next couple of months.
NTPC is also keen on taking up a 4000 MW power project at Lara in Chattisgarh for which it has a coal mine linkage. At Kahalgaon in Bihar NTPC and CITU have also arrived at an agreement to resume work at the 3x500 MW project site in Bihar after a gap of almost nine months.