Essar Power increases power generation

With the commissioning of the second 135 MW unit of the 2 x 135 MW Hazira power plant in Gujarat, the project is now fully commissioned and operating on full load. The second 30 MW unit at the 4 x 30 MW Paradip power plant in Odisha was also commissioned in the fiscal. With this, half the targeted capacity of 120 MW for the Paradip power plant has been commissioned.

In FY 2016 – 2017, Essar Power’s Mahan plant resumed operations after a gap of 19 months. Operations restarted at the beginning of the financial year and have continued without interruption banking on e-auction coal provided by Coal India Ltd. Essar Power MP Ltd, the company that operates the Mahan plant, procured over 3 million t of coal through the e-auction route in FY 2016 – 2017.

Essar Power’s operational capacity in India now stands at 4755 MW. The company is currently developing the 1200 MW Tori plant in Jharkhand and the remaining 2 x 30 MW units in Paradip. Essar Power’s total power generation capacity when these two plants come on stream will be 6,100 MW (including the 85 MW plant that is operational in Algoma, Canada).

Speaking on the performance, KVB Reddy, CEO, Essar Power, said: “Almost 80% of our planned capacity of 6100 MW is now operational with eight out of nine plants up and running. The initiatives of the ministries of Power and Coal in the last fiscal provided a fillip to the sector, helping us restart operations at the Mahan plant. Domestic coal auctions have helped mitigate the issue of coal availability. Though the sector is firmly on the path of revival, the government of India must consider reducing interest rates that currently make most power projects financially unviable. Measures like the RBI’s 5/25 scheme will help optimise power generation costs.”

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/power/12042017/essar-power-increases-power-generation/