Essar Power to expand Hazira power generation capacity by 135 Mw

The additional capacity is part of the company's plans to consolidate its capacities across the country

Essar Power, which runs a greenfield 135 Mw multi-fuel power plant at Hazira in Gujarat under Essar Power Hazira Ltd (EPHL), is set to expand the capacity to 270 Mw by adding second unit of 135 Mw by July this year.

According to Sushil Maroo, managing director, Essar Power, the additional 135 Mw capacity at Hazira is part of the company's plans to consolidate its capacities across the country.

"Our total generation capacity today is 4,675 MW which is going up to 6,015 MW, making us amongst India's top five private sector power producers. Of 4,675 MW operational capacity, 1,600 MW is based on gas and 3,075 MW is coal-based capacity," said Maroo. The operating plants in India are at Mahan, Hazira, Salaya and Vadinar. A 1,200 MW plant at Tori in Jharkhand state is under commissioning.

Recently, EPHL recorded a Plant Load Factor of 98.22% in the quarter ended December 31, 2015, compared to 78.44% in the previous quarter-an improvement of over 25%. The net power generated during the period under review was 263.5 MU.

A greenfield multi-fuel power project, Essar Power Hazira is designed to use Corex coal, Corex coal fines, mixture of Corex gas and coke oven gas and imported thermal coal. It is designed to operate on 100% Corex coal or 100% Corex gas, or in any combination of the two. Once completed, the project will be able to reduce around 6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.