)
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has invited expressions of interest from consultancy firms and institutions for empanelment to provide consultancy for preparation of a detailed project report for these projects.
CEA says there is 120,875 Mw of coal-fired generation capacity (57.3 per cent of the total installed) as on December 31, 2012.
State sector utilities own a little more than half of these. R&M of existing plants is in many cases the least cost option for more generation.
CEA estimates 30,000 Mw of the capacity is in need of R&M for improvement in the plant load factor and the heat rate by 10-15 per cent. This will hep save coal and with a corresponding reduction in carbon dioxide emission.
C P Jain, former chairman of NTPC, the country’s largest generation company, told Business Standard: “It is the need of the hour to save fuel, increase generation and protect the environment. However, there has to be a well-laid procedure for fast decision making on the new requirements after opening up of the machine. Experience shows that due to this problem, R&M efforts could not pick up or be completed.”
The National Electricity Policy has said all existing generation capacity should be brought to acceptable performance standards on efficiency, reliability and environment performance.
