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Coal-starved 1,200 Mw Singaji Super Critical thermal power station in Khandwa district will start commercial production soon from its second unit, Madhya Pradesh finance minister Jayant Malaiyya today announced here and said his government would make a fresh investment of Rs 1,525 crore in power system improvement.
The state has already has attained power generation capacity of 13000 Mw by end of 2013-14 and would add another 3120 Mw of power to this capacity soon, he said in the state assembly while presenting state budget today. The state had attained record power supply of 9,758 Mw and ensured round-the-clock power supply to non-farm consumers, the minister said.
Madhya Pradesh has now 10.94 million power consumers now. The number of consumers was 6.49 million during 2004-05.
Second unit of Singaji thermal power project would start commercial production soon, he informed the assembly during his budget speech. The first unit had already been launched earlier this year but the plant faced coal shortage. The plant has been set up in Dongalia village of Khandwa district on super critical technology which will consume water from nearby Indira Sagar project and coal from Southern Eastern Coalfields Limited. The second unit of the project was scheduled to be commissioned by last month.
The minister said another amount of Rs 1486 crore will be invested to system improvement like laying of another 2117 km of power transmission lines. Similarly, he said, the power distribution would also get an investment of Rs 4000 crore. The government has proposed to reduce technical and commercial losses to 17.50% from existing 25.95% during 2013-14.
In renewable energy the state has also created 858 Mw capacity, the minister said, and by December 2014 the renewable energy capacity would reach 2500 Mw. A total of Rs 72 crore would be invested in the renewable energy in 2014-15, the minister further said. The state now boasts India's largest solar plant of 130 Mw in Neemuch district.
