Orissa to get 50% power from NTPC's super thermal projects

Orissa will get 50 per cent power from two super thermal power projects proposed by National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC) in the state, a top company official said here.

NTPC has proposed to set up a 4,800 MW plant at Darlipalli in Sundergarh district and 3,200 MW plant at Gajmara in Dhenkanal district.

“The Orissa government had sought 50 per cent power allocation from our two super thermal power projects in the state. The Government of India has agreed to this proposal. We have also got the coal linkage for the Gajamara plant. Our next priority is to expedite land acquisition for these two plants and we have sought the state government’s help in this regard,” Arup Roy Choudhury, chairman and managing director, NTPC told media persons after a meeting with the Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

The 4,800 MW power plant coming up on around 3,000 acres of land at Darlipalli will be commissioned in three phases. Each phase has a capacity of 1,600 MW (2x800) and all the three phases are scheduled to be commissioned by the end of the 12th Plan period (2016-17).

NTPC has obtained water clearance from the Orissa government for this project and deposited establishment charges for land acquisition before the issue of notification under Section 4 (1) of the Land Acquisition Act.

It has also conducted various studies like Environmental Impact Study (EIA), socio-economic study, topographical study, hydrographic study and seismic study. The Gajamara project needed 2,900 acres of land and NTPC claims to have conducted the gram sabha for this project in March this year.

The navratna power utility, which has an installed capacity of 3,460 MW in Orissa will pump over Rs 50,000 crore in generating additional capacity of 9,320 MW in the state by the end of 2017.

Besides these two mega power projects, NTPC is also scaling up the capacity of its existing thermal power station at Talcher by adding two supercritical units of 1,320 MW capacity (2x660 MW).

Asked on the coal crisis at its Talcher Thermal Power Station (TTPS) despite Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) claiming to have supplied adequate coal, Choudhury said, “The coal quantity supplied by MCL under the Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) has been worked out taking into consideration a Plant Load factor (PLF) of 70 per cent. However, we are operating our TTPS plant at 103 per cent PLF and hence the coal shortage has cropped up.”