The Chhattisgarh State Power Generation Company ltd (CSPGCl) will be deploying trained fire fighting personnel on round-the-clock duty in three shifts at its 2 X500 Mw Marwa Thermal Power Plant (TPP) in the district, officials informed here on Saturday.
The company is also installing a carbon monoxide (CO) gas leak analyzer at its 2X500 MW Thermal Power Station (TPS) at Marwa in Janjgir-Champa district of Chhattisgarh, officials informed.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is expected to add 14,140 MW of additional power generation capacity in its thermal plants between November 2015 to March 2022, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in its perspective transmission plan report prepared for 20 years ( 2014-34).
The objective of the plan is to present broad outlines of the requirement of additional transmission system in the Indian grid during the next two decades.
The National Electricity Plan is under preparation u/S 3(4) of the Electricity Act 2003. This Plan would inter-alia give generation capacity addition for period up to 2021-22 based on integrated resource planning requirements for the country.
In the absence of the generation addition programme for 13th Plan period, an estimate was made considering the ongoing and likely capacity addition for the conventional generation projects.
Major high capacity transmission corridors have already been planned and which are under implementation would be sufficient to meet import/export of power among various regions in the year 2021-22.
This is based on the assumptions of load growth and generation capacity addition.
Initially, the High Capacity Corridors from Chhattisgarh and Odisha were planned with reduced reliability due to uncertainties in generation addition by IPPs. The generations which were associated with these high capacity corridors are coming up in phased manner and till now no major constraint is being faced.
However, with the coming up of more generations, additional transmission strengthening may be required to meet the reliability criteria. This would be taken up with firm status of new generation projects.
The State currently also has total renewable energy potential of 4,500 MW which includes solar (grid connected and roof top), wind biomass and small hydro.
It has also planned to install solar powered pump sets for agriculture consumers which will benefit 16,000 consumers.
It may be recalled that there are significantly more number of villages which are to be electrified in Chhattisgarh using the off-grid (solar) mode than the grid-based (conventional power supply.
The State has also launched a ‘Solar Community Irrigation Project’ for drawing water extracted using solar pumps for supplying to the agricultural land of farmers across the State.
The Central government has released Rs 12 lakh each for Raipur and Bilaspur for the Solar City project, officials informed.
The total sanctioned funds for the two cities is Rs 43 lakh each.
A total amount of Rs 67.01 crore has been sanctioned for preparation of master plans, solar city cells, promotional activities and installation of renewable energy projects and an amount of Rs 24.16 crore has been released, so far, under Solar City Programme.
Out of 7 identified solar cities in Maharashtra, an amount of Rs 7.74 crore has been sanctioned and an amount of Rs 3.04 crore has been released for 6 solar cities.
Notably , Chhattisgarh will procure additional power from renewable energy sources to the tune of approximately 700 MW by FY 2018, officials informed.
With this the average power purchase cost for Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company ltd (CSPDCl) based on the above power availability will increase from 2.58 Rs /kWh in FY 2015-16 to 3.12 Rs /kWh in FY 2018, they informed.
The rates have been derived based on cost of power at existing rates and considering no escalation in power purchase cost since it is passing through for the distribution company.
Chhattisgarh has two ‘waste-to-energy’ power plants proposed with a total installed capacity of 10 MW, officials informed.
Notably, five Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) to energy plants with a cumulative installed capacity of 66.5 MW are currently operational/under trial run in the country.
The Chhattisgarh government has decided to set up a ‘Waste to Energy’ power generation plant in Durg district.
The Government intends to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) administration for jointly taking up the project, officials informed.
The project is proposed to be undertaken under ‘Swachch Bharat Abhiyan’ under the Government’s solid waste management project.
The proposed ‘Waste to Energy’ plant would utilise waste generated from municipal corporations of Bhilai, Durg, Bhilai-Charoda, two municipal councils mainly Jamul and Kumhari and three Nagar Panchayats mainly Utai, Patan and Gunderdehi.
Notably, the State-owned Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company ltd (CSPDCl) in January last year had also announced that it will be purchasing 50 MW of electricity from bio-mass power producers in the State. The company would sign a 20-year agreement with the power producers, officials stated.