Essar Steel's Vizag captive power plant restored

The plant is being operated at full capacity and has begun supplying power to the eight-million-tonne pellet plant

Steel maker Essar Steel today said it has restored the 30 Mw captive power plant located in the premises of its pellet plant facility here after cyclonic storm Hudhud had ravaged the plant in October last year.

The plant is being operated at full capacity and has begun supplying power to the eight-million-tonne-per-annum pellet plant, the company said in a statement.

During the peak of Hudhud had hit Visakhapatnam, the captive power plant equipment, including electro static precipitator, ash silo with structures, cooling tower stacks and belt conveyor, were severely damaged, the company said.

"Subsequently, the Essar team channelised its entire resources into reconstructing the damaged units. Involving almost 400 MT of structural construction and equipment installation, with more than 100 workmen dedicatedly working, the Essar team brought the plant back to operation within a short span of five months," it said.

With the captive power plant back on stream, the pellet plant would now once again have access to economic and reliable power, thereby improving its competitive edge.

In addition, Essar Steel has also restored 52 acres of green belt in the plant premises that was damaged by the cyclone.

Specialists from Bengaluru were consulted for ensuring maximum survival rate of the damaged greenbelt and to promote fast growth of foliage.

These timely measures ensured that about 83 per cent of the trees, survived. And about 4,500 plants of different species were also planted to fill the gaps of lost trees and the greenbelt was fully recreated, it added.