Thermal power plants good for Trichy power equipment cluster

Power industry hands today portrayed a bright future for the power equipment cluster in Trichy because thermal power is likely to retain its dominance in the foreseeable future.

The industry hands expressed their views at 'Energex 2005,' an energy equipment exhibition organised this week in Trichy by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

A CII press release said that H N Sharan, co-chairman, Decentralised Energy Systems, while delivering the keynote address indicated that the presence of coal-based energy systems would be significant for a long time.

In this scenario, the power equipment manufacturers in Trichy are well placed. The cluster in Trichy contributes 4,000 MW of equipment to the power sector. This year, the turnover of energy equipment from Trichy is expected to reach Rs 6,000 crore, said Sharan.

Today, 69 per cent of the total installed capacity of 1,14,000 MW in India is thermal power. V Sethuraman, director- power, Neyvelli Lignite Corporation, during the course of the inaugural address said that more than half the fresh capacity envisaged over the next few years would be from coal and gas-fired plants.

He felt that coal-based power capacity in India would be 1.3 lakh MW by 2012.