The State Government has urged the Union Ministry of Power (MoP) and the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to withdraw the proposal to close down four old thermal power units of the NTPC ltd with a combined capacity of 250 MW at its Talcher Thermal power station (TTPS).
The CEA has proposed to retire the four units (4X62.5 MW) during the 12th Five Year Plan period as they were commissioned during 1967-69 and have become outdated.
If the proposal works, the State would lose 250 MW of power that the TTPS supplies to Gridco under the power purchase agreement inked in April 1995.
“Over the years, NTPC has undertaken massive renovation and modernisation works of TTPS under various phases with a capital expenditure to the tune of Rs 750 crore, which has already been approved and capitalised by Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) up to 2014 and the said amount is in the process of realisation by NTPC from Gridco through tariff. The CERC has also extended the useful life of the TTPS for 20 years till March 31, 2021,” said Energy Additional Secretary Sangramjit Nayak in a letter to the Chief Engineer (Data Management & load Forecasting division), CEA.
The Government argued that TTPS is considered a reliable source of dedicated power to Odisha owing to its geographical location in the vicinity of coal mines.
“The CEA and the Ministry of Power are requested to see that the capital expenditure made so far in R&M are fully utilised and the benefit of the same is being passed on to the consumers of Odisha up to 2021 as approved by the CERC,” the letter said.
Presently, the NTPC TTPS has a power generation capacity of 460 MW. The plant was transferred to NTPC by erstwhile OSEB in 1995.