Madras Cements reduces power cost with captive plant

Madras Cements expects a saving of about 44 per cent per unit cost of power in its Alathiyur cement factory in Tamil Nadu following a complete shift to a captive power plant.

The company's chairman and managing director P R Ramasubrahmaneya Rajha said that cost of captive power was Rs 2.25 per unit, while the cost of power supplied by the state electricity board was Rs 4 per unit.

The Alathiyur cement plant is one of the four cement plants operated by Madras Cements.

In March 2005, a 36 MW power plant was built and commissioned by Thermax. The plant is coal-based and came up at an investment of Rs 95 crore. The company expects to save Rs 5 crore to Rs 6 crore a year following the development.

Rajha said that Madras Cements had come out of the electricity grid, and would henceforth rely only on its own power source.

Rajha said that Madras Cements is studying the possibility of selling surplus power generated by its Alathiyur plant to the electricity grid. The company expects the power consumption to be about 29 MW when the factory is running at full steam.

One of the key issues that would have to be addressed by the company is that of a consistent feed of power to the grid. Rajha said the issue was under consideration.