Neyveli Lignite commissions CFBC based power plant after 6 year delay

Neyveli Lignite Corporation Limited (NLC) has commenced commercial operations of India's first Circulating Fluidised Bed Combustion (CFBC) Boiler plant in Tamil Nadu.

In an announcement to NSE today the company informed that Unit II (250 MW) of Thermal Power Station - II Expansion project (2X250 MW) at Neyveli, has been successfully declared for commencement of commercial operation with effect from April, 22, 2015.

The steam generators of this project employ eco-friendly circulating fluidised bed combustion (CFBC) technology, which is adopted for the first time in India. There has been nearly a six years delay in implementing this project. The project involves setting up of two units of 250-Mw each. The project contractor, BHEL, delayed the commissioning as it had to come up with an improvised fluidised bed heat exchange (FBH) tubes in the unit.

According to an information available, due to the repeated failures in CFBC boilers and other issues, the delay has occured, and NLC has already claimed around Rs 130 crore as liquidity damage from BHEL. They also said that the NLC has incurred a revenue loss of around Rs 3,000 crore due to the delay in commissioning, considering the conservative figures of Rs 900 per MT of lignite and 30% efficiency.