TNPL to set up 30 MW power plant to support new project

The company is setting up a multilayer paper board manufacturing plant for Rs 1,500 crore

Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Ltd (TNPL), is planning to set up a 30-Mw power plant with an investment of around Rs 150 crore. The proposed project will cater to its upcoming Rs 1,500-crore multilayer paper board manufacturing plant at Tiruchy.

The greenfield facility at Mannaparai will be coal-based, and is expected to go on stream by this June, according to company sources. The company will import the raw material (coal).

The paper board plant is expected to be ready by the end of 2015. IT has also called for bids to maintain the upcoming power plant.

In 2013-14, the company augmented its captive power generation capacity to 103.62 Mw from 81.12 Mw. TNPL self-generates 99.2 per cent of its power requirements and draws only 0.8 per cent from the state grid, the official said.

The company had installed the first wind farm of 15 Mw capacity during 1993-94 at Devarkulam Perungudi in Tirunelveli district. Since then, it has increased the capacity to 35.5 Mw in stages. The wind farm power is partly exported to the grid and partly consumed in the factory by wheeling.

TNPL was established by the state government during the early 80s to produce newsprint and printing & writing paper using bagasse, a sugarcane residue, as primary raw material.