Phase-2 of Simhadri power plant to be completed by 2011

Visakhapatnam: The phase two of the Simhadri thermal power plant of the NTPC, adding two more units of 500 MW each, will be completed by 2011 and the additional power will be shared among the southern States, according to Mr A.N Dave, Regional Executive Director (South) of the NTPC.

He said that currently 1,000 MW being generated by the plant was being allocated exclusively for Andhra Pradesh.

He said that it had not yet been decided in what ratio the additional power (1,000 MW) should be distributed among the southern States.

He said that during 2007-08 the Simhadri power plant had generated 7,779.66 million units at a plant load factor of 88.57 per cent. During the financial year, the NTPC southern region had achieved a total generation of 30,088.940 million units and the NTPC Ramagundam in Andhra Pradesh had achieved 2,0587.668 MUs at a plant load factor of 90.14 per cent. It was the highest ever power generation at Ramagundam.

During the year, he said, the power station at Kayamkulam had achieved generation of 1,721.546 MUs at a plant load factor of 54.51 per cent against the MoU target of 1,200 MUs.

On the question of ash utilisation, Mr Dave said the Ramagundam station had achieved 60.82 per cent (28.75 lakh tonnes) of ash utilisation against the target of 26.86 lakh tonnes.

Simhadri station had achieved 70.54 per cent (16.25 lakh tonnes) against a target of 13.54 lakh tonnes. Mr R. Venkateswaran, General Manager (in-charge) of the Simhadri station, said the work on the second phase was going on briskly.

The Simhadri station had received several awards such as the Ministry of Power’s Gold award for outstanding performance in thermal power generation for 2006-07, the safety innovation award for 2007 for the third consecutive year from the Institution of Engineers, New Delhi, and the Greentech Gold Award for 2008 from the Greentech Society.