Record power generation by NTPC's Himachal plant

Public sector NTPC's 800 MW Koldam Hydro Power Station in Himachal Pradesh has achieved a record generation, it was announced on Saturday.

It has generated 2,635.76 million units (MUs) against the design energy of 2,506.77 MUs in the first two quarters of this fiscal year, Group General Manager Sanjeev Kishore said in a statement.

The plant, located on the Satluj river in Bilaspur district, has a capacity to generate 3,054 MUs annually.

He said the generation from April to September is higher owing to optimum and efficient operations of the machines.

The hydropower station, which commenced commercial operations on July 18 last year has established new benchmarks of power generation from July and August this year with a plant load factor of 107 per cent, he said.

The power station is a unique plant being operated as a run-of-river scheme with pondage. So it is neither a storage water scheme nor fully a run-of-river scheme.

It is located upstream of the Bhakra Hydro power station, a storage water plant with a huge reservoir and high dam.

The Koldam power station has four generating units, each of 200 MW capacity that are designed to generate 3,054 MUs of energy annually.

With the ongoing records of generation, the plant is heading to surpass the targets of generation, Kishore said.

The plant supplies electricity to Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh.

He said that since its commencment in July last year, the plant has generated 4,419 MUs of electricity.

The Koldam has a storage capacity of 90 million cubic metres.

The reservoir is spread over Mandi, Bilaspur, Shimla and Solan districts.

The Koldam power station is the maiden venture of NTPC Ltd, a central PSU mainly engaged in thermal power generation in the country.

NTPC has an installed capacity of over 47,226 MW and is generating 886 MUs of energy a day.

In the hydropower sector, the company is executing three more hydro projects in Uttarakhand and West Bengal, with a combined generation capacity of 719 MW.

It is also implementing nine solar power projects to generate 360 MW of electricity.

--IANS

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