NTPC has lined up an investment of INR 2648 crore on development of three coal blocks it has bagged in Odisha.
On the Dulanga coal block linked to its 1600 Mw Darlipalli super thermal power project in Sundargarh district, the maharatna PSU intends to invest INR 648 crore. NTPC is developing 1600 Mw super thermal power station at the location at an investment of INR 12532 crore.
“The first unit of the Darlipalli plant (800 Mw) capacity is expected to come up by February 2018. Commercial operations would take off from August 2018”, said Arvind Kumar regional executive director (East-II), NTPC Ltd.
NTPC has already invested INR 4000 crore on the Darlipalli power station. Fifty per cent of the power generated from this plant would feed the Odisha grid. Dulanga coal block aside, NTPC has won the Mandakini-B block and Kudanli Luburi coal block in a joint venture with the Jammu & Kashmir State Power Development Corporation Ltd. The Mandakini coal block would see an investment of INR 1500 crore while INR 500 crore is to be pumped for developing Kudanli Luburi coal mine in the Talcher belt.
NTPC said, it has exposed coal at its captive Pakri Barwadih mines in Jharkhand where mining is set to commence shortly. The biggest thermal power generator is massively diversifying into renewable energy, especially solar power. In the green energy space, it is eyeing a capacity of 10,000 Mw in the next four to five years.
In Odisha, NTPC has proposed to establish a 400 Mw solar power project with an investment of INR 2200 crore. The solar generation capacity may even go up to 1000 Mw depending on land availability, said Kumar. Presently, NTPC is operating solar photo voltaic capacities of 360 Mw and an additional 510 Mw is under construction across different states.
NTPC also has a good presence in hydro power with capacity totaling 800 Mw. In thermal power where NTPC is the biggest generator, the total rated capacity by the utility is 47228 Mw with incremental 24059 Mw under various stages of execution. NTPC aims to reach a generation capacity of 75,000 Mw by 2025 and 132,000 Mw by 2032.
In Odisha, NTPC’s bets are huge as well. It has an investment portfolio of INR 38189 crore on projects under execution and also some proposed projects.
NTPC is scaling up capacity of its joint venture captive power plant with Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) at Rourkela steel unit, from 120 Mw to 370 Mw. This needs a fresh investment of INR 1885 crore.
NTPC is adding two super critical units of 660 Mw each at its Talcher Thermal Power Station where the installed capacity is 460 Mw. It has plans for another super thermal power plant at Gajamara, in Dhenkanal district, being taken up at an investment of INR 11236 crore. But, lack of an allocated coal block has supposedly pushed the project to delay. The rest of the investments would go into solar power and coal mines development.
Leave a Reply