Frontier India Current Affairs

Written on May 30, 2008 – 5:00 pm | by FICA |

The first 500 MW unit of NTPC’s giant power project at Sipat in Bilaspur district of Chattisgarh went on full load today, almost a full year after it was declared commissioned. It will go fully commercial in about three weeks time. The second 500 MW unit is expected to go fully commercial by October, 2008. Both the 500 MW units use boilers and turbines manufactured by BHEL.

The two 500 MW units form Stage-II of the project, while three supercritical 660 MW units form Stage-I. The boilers for these 660 MW units are being supplied by the South Korean company, Doosan and the turbines by the Russian firm Power Machines. Stage-I has been delayed by well over two years. It is now expected that the first 660 MW unit, which will also be the first supercritical unit in the country, will be commissioned by March 31st, 2009 and go commercial three-four months thereafter. NTPC has long-standing contractual disputes with Doosan.

In a detailed analysis by experts in central government establishment found that of the 6620 MW of thermal capacity publicly declared commissioned in 2007/08, 3810 MW of capacity (around 58%) has yet to reach COD stage yet. This, reflected poorly on the entire supply chain—on BHEL, on other main plant suppliers, on suppliers of key balance of plant equipment like coal and ash handling plants, on civil works contractors and also on owners themselves—and is simply an unacceptable state of affairs. He said that this policy of declaring a unit commissioned based purely on synchronisation on oil has been in vogue for over two decades just so that targets are shown to have been met. This will no longer be the case. The CEA itself had recommended to the Union Ministry of Power the changed definition of commissioning in a report submitted in September 2007.