800 MW unit in N Chennai will be commissioned by Dec: Min
Electricity Minister V Senthilbalaji on Sunday said that 800 MW North Chennai Super Critical Thermal Power Station Stage III would begin commercial generation by December 2022.
After inspecting ongoing construction works at the NCTPS Stage III plant, the minister said that 83 per cent of the work was completed on the Rs 8,723 crore and the remaining 17 per cent of work including boiler-related would be completed in the next six months. “By December this year, all the work would be completed and commercial operation will commence,” he said.
The minister said that the NCTPS Stage III should have been commissioned in 2019 itself but the AIADMK government failed to do so. Pointing to the increase in the state’s power demand from 14,500 MW to 16,500 MW, he said Tangedco’s own generation capacity would be increased along with improvements to the distribution network. “In the next five years, we will add 6,220 MW to our own generation,” he said.
On the summer power demand, he said that Tangedco has met the alltime high demand of 17,563 MW on
April 29. “Even in Chennai, the power demand has increased by 500 to 700 MW. The city’s power demand would go up further by 500 MW in the coming months. In that case, we need to strengthen the distribution infrastructure to ensure an uninterrupted power supply. In the coming week, we have lineup review meetings in this regard,” he said. He noted that Tangedco is also focusing on developing the infrastructure to meet the increasing demand and 24,000 new transformers have been erected in the last year.
On the coal shortage, the minister said that the thermal power plants have coal stock for 6.5 days. He also claimed that the TANGEDCO has imported 4.8 lakh tonnes of coal at $137 per tonne which is the lowest in the country. “We have given contracts to two companies through a transparent bidding process,” he added.