Ghazipur waste-to-energy plant to start this month
NEW DELHI: After a delay of four years, the Ghazipur Waste to Energy (WtE) plant will be commissioned this month.
The plant, which will use 1,300 tonnes of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) on a daily basis from the Ghazipur landfill site, will be Delhi’s second such facility after the operational Timarpur-Okhla WtE plant.
Built with a capacity to generate 12 MW of electricity, the plant received the Consent to Operate (CTO), along with conditions, from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee on August 31.
Speaking to HT, Debashish Tripathy, vice-president (Resource Conservation and Strategy) at IL&FS Environmental Infrastructure and Services Ltd said that the plant will help in saving 213 acres of land valued at over ₹2,000 crore which would otherwise be used for dumping waste during its project life of 25 years.
“The WtE is presently shut to undertake civil works on the Flue Gas Stack for providing a porthole at 19.5 metres, together with a scaffolding ladder, as required by the CTO. We plan to commence operations by the end of this month,” he said. The plant is a joint venture between the Delhi government and IL&FS.
The government has signed an agreement with BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) for offtake of 49% of energy. The electricity generated in this unit will be supplied to East Delhi areas.
“The balance power will be sold under open access. The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has already accepted the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC)-determined rate of ₹7.90 per unit for energy generated from similar waste to energy plants,” explained a gov- ernment official.
The DPCC has authorised the company to process 1300 tonnes per day (TPD) of MSW to generate 12 MW of power. However, the plant has been built to process 2,000 TPD of MSW. The plant was on trial run for the past two months in which it produced 10 million units of power by processing 1,70,000 tonnes of solid waste.
Delhi generates a mammoth 8,390 tonnes of MSW every day and all the three landfill sites of the city have long crossed their threshold limit.
The unit is going to take off significant load from not only the operational Timarpur-Okhla WtE, but also that from the Ghazipur landfill site.
While another WtE planned at Narela still awaits commissioning, the Ghazipur unit was first slated to be ready by 2013. However, the company that was building it quit midway and the entire process had to start from scratch.