 "Industry readies for atomic push")
With the country's largest nuclear power plant at Kudankulam, on the southern tip of Tamil Nadu, set to commission the first phase of production, a large section of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is hopeful that business will soon begin to look up. SMEs have been hit the worst by the power crisis in the state which is facing a deficit of around 4000 MW of power.
The controversy-ridden Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, located on the shores of Kudankulam village in Tirunelveli district, around 700 km from Chennai, will start production in the next 15-20 days once it completes the trial run, says R S Sundar, the plant;s site director. Sundar, whose office is a few metres from the reactors, says experiments and tests are now in progress. The plant was supposed to go on stream by the end of August, but it missed the target due to a technical snag.
Unit 1 had achieved criticality on July 13. The second unit is expected to go on stream by June next year. "Our focus is on fully commencing Unit 1, which is why progress on Unit 2 is not so quick though a separate team is working on it. We expect it to go on stream by the end of June 2014," says Sundar.
Kudankulam is a 2,000-MW project comprising Unit 1 and 2, each of which will generate 1,000 MW of power. Unit 1 is going to be synchronised anytime now. Initially, it will generate 250 MW of power. There is a further plan - an ambitious one - to set up four more units of 1,000 MW each. Once those are ready, the Kudankulam plant will have six reactors in all. "We want to install six reactors at Kudankulam with a total capacity of 6,000 MW. Enough land has been acquired for those and environmental clearances have been obtained," says Sundar.
For commissioning the third and fourth units, talks between the governments of India and Russia are in the advanced stage. "Hopefully, these two units will also take off in a year's time. Setting up a power plant which generates one megawatt of power based on nuclear technology costs around Rs 8 crore," says Sundar. The current equipment, technology and expertise are mostly from outside India. But in the future project, 20 per cent of these will be indigenous, or localised.
For Unit I and II, the initial cost was estimated to be around Rs 13,171 crore, but it has gone up to Rs 17,270 crore due to the delay, rupee depreciation and certain other factors. Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions and Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy says of the 2,000 MW that will be generated, Karnataka will get 442 MW, Tamil Nadu 925 MW (which includes 10 per cent home state entitlement), Kerala 266 MW and Puducherry 67 MW. The remaining 300 MW is yet to be allocated. Apart from 925 MW, the central government has decided to allocate 100 MW of the unallocated power to Tamil Nadu once Unit 1 becomes operational. "This will be an added help for the SMEs in the state, especially once wind energy slows down," says Rafeeq Ahmed, president of the Federation of Indian Export Promotion Organisations. In the southern part of Tamil Nadu, wind energy came to the rescue when power deficit was at its peak.
Those engaged in traditional industries like salt, engineering and printing located around Tirunelveli also expect things to get better. But they also suspect that the problem will prevail unless more power projects come up. M P Dileep, who represents the salt industry located less than 100 km from the Kudankulam plant, says until two months ago, the industry faced power cuts for up to 12 hours a day. This, he says, pushed up power cost by almost three times. "The Kudankulam power project will not only address the problem of power deficit, it will also bring down the cost of power substantially," says Dileep. Compared to Rs 12-14 a unit, nuclear power generated at the Kudankulam plant will cost Rs 3-3.5 per kilo watt.
J James, Coimbatore district president of the Tamil Nadu Association of Cottage and Micro Enterprises, says till October wind farms will help the industry. His worry was: what would happen thereafter? But now, with the Kudankulam plant expected to be up and running soon, he says that concern has been addressed. The state witnesses peak wind season between July and September. During these months, windmills generate maximum power.
James, like Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, wants that the entire energy generated by the plant should be given to the state to help it tide over the power crisis. Power shortage has hit almost 50 per cent of the production, he says. Nearly 30 per cent of the shortage can be addressed if all the power is given to the state, he adds.
Not all are, however, happy about the progress of the Kudankulam power plant. Fishermen from the village of Idinthakarai, a 15-20-minute drive from Kudankulam, have been protesting against the plant. They have even approached the Supreme Court and expressed fear about their safety if the plant becomes operational.
The wind farm owners, too, aren't pleased. Wind farms in and around Tirunelveli, which have the capacity to generate 1,500-2,000 MW of power, are using the transmission lines laid for the Kudankulam plant. As the plant commences operation, these lines may not be available to the wind farms.
In an earlier interview to Business Standard, Ramesh Kymal, chairman and managing director of Gamesa and chairman of Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers' Association, had said, "We are now utilsing, in a very surrogate manner, the transmission system which was put up for the Kudankulam plant. Once Kudankulam becomes operational, that transmission system will not be available for wind and there is no alternative plan."
However, another industry representative says that Unit I will not have an impact on wind farms since the wind season will be over before it starts production. The challenge for them will be when Unit II becomes operational.
Officials in the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board say they have already started expansion work for the transmission lines. By the time the next wind season starts, this problem will be addressed, they assure. "We have a separate corridor for power evacuation and there are four separate transmission lines going from Kudankulam to the sub-station in Tirunelveli," says Sundar. These lines are exclusively-designed and in no way will they disturb wind energy production, he adds. The plant, he reiterates, is safe and both the state and central governments have established this.
The reactors at Kudankulam are being built by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited and Russia's Atomstroyexport company, a subsidiary of Rosatom (the regulatory body of the Russian nuclear complex). The Indian government signed a contract with the Soviet Union to build the plant in 1988, but construction started only in 1997 due to the political and economic upheaval in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The construction of the first two units was later halted in September 2011 following protests by villagers. Work at the plant finally resumed in March 2012. And now, it's days away from generating energy.
The controversy-ridden Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, located on the shores of Kudankulam village in Tirunelveli district, around 700 km from Chennai, will start production in the next 15-20 days once it completes the trial run, says R S Sundar, the plant;s site director. Sundar, whose office is a few metres from the reactors, says experiments and tests are now in progress. The plant was supposed to go on stream by the end of August, but it missed the target due to a technical snag.
Unit 1 had achieved criticality on July 13. The second unit is expected to go on stream by June next year. "Our focus is on fully commencing Unit 1, which is why progress on Unit 2 is not so quick though a separate team is working on it. We expect it to go on stream by the end of June 2014," says Sundar.
Kudankulam is a 2,000-MW project comprising Unit 1 and 2, each of which will generate 1,000 MW of power. Unit 1 is going to be synchronised anytime now. Initially, it will generate 250 MW of power. There is a further plan - an ambitious one - to set up four more units of 1,000 MW each. Once those are ready, the Kudankulam plant will have six reactors in all. "We want to install six reactors at Kudankulam with a total capacity of 6,000 MW. Enough land has been acquired for those and environmental clearances have been obtained," says Sundar.
For commissioning the third and fourth units, talks between the governments of India and Russia are in the advanced stage. "Hopefully, these two units will also take off in a year's time. Setting up a power plant which generates one megawatt of power based on nuclear technology costs around Rs 8 crore," says Sundar. The current equipment, technology and expertise are mostly from outside India. But in the future project, 20 per cent of these will be indigenous, or localised.
* * *
For Unit I and II, the initial cost was estimated to be around Rs 13,171 crore, but it has gone up to Rs 17,270 crore due to the delay, rupee depreciation and certain other factors. Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions and Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy says of the 2,000 MW that will be generated, Karnataka will get 442 MW, Tamil Nadu 925 MW (which includes 10 per cent home state entitlement), Kerala 266 MW and Puducherry 67 MW. The remaining 300 MW is yet to be allocated. Apart from 925 MW, the central government has decided to allocate 100 MW of the unallocated power to Tamil Nadu once Unit 1 becomes operational. "This will be an added help for the SMEs in the state, especially once wind energy slows down," says Rafeeq Ahmed, president of the Federation of Indian Export Promotion Organisations. In the southern part of Tamil Nadu, wind energy came to the rescue when power deficit was at its peak.
Those engaged in traditional industries like salt, engineering and printing located around Tirunelveli also expect things to get better. But they also suspect that the problem will prevail unless more power projects come up. M P Dileep, who represents the salt industry located less than 100 km from the Kudankulam plant, says until two months ago, the industry faced power cuts for up to 12 hours a day. This, he says, pushed up power cost by almost three times. "The Kudankulam power project will not only address the problem of power deficit, it will also bring down the cost of power substantially," says Dileep. Compared to Rs 12-14 a unit, nuclear power generated at the Kudankulam plant will cost Rs 3-3.5 per kilo watt.
J James, Coimbatore district president of the Tamil Nadu Association of Cottage and Micro Enterprises, says till October wind farms will help the industry. His worry was: what would happen thereafter? But now, with the Kudankulam plant expected to be up and running soon, he says that concern has been addressed. The state witnesses peak wind season between July and September. During these months, windmills generate maximum power.
James, like Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, wants that the entire energy generated by the plant should be given to the state to help it tide over the power crisis. Power shortage has hit almost 50 per cent of the production, he says. Nearly 30 per cent of the shortage can be addressed if all the power is given to the state, he adds.
* * *
Not all are, however, happy about the progress of the Kudankulam power plant. Fishermen from the village of Idinthakarai, a 15-20-minute drive from Kudankulam, have been protesting against the plant. They have even approached the Supreme Court and expressed fear about their safety if the plant becomes operational.
The wind farm owners, too, aren't pleased. Wind farms in and around Tirunelveli, which have the capacity to generate 1,500-2,000 MW of power, are using the transmission lines laid for the Kudankulam plant. As the plant commences operation, these lines may not be available to the wind farms.
In an earlier interview to Business Standard, Ramesh Kymal, chairman and managing director of Gamesa and chairman of Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers' Association, had said, "We are now utilsing, in a very surrogate manner, the transmission system which was put up for the Kudankulam plant. Once Kudankulam becomes operational, that transmission system will not be available for wind and there is no alternative plan."
However, another industry representative says that Unit I will not have an impact on wind farms since the wind season will be over before it starts production. The challenge for them will be when Unit II becomes operational.
Officials in the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board say they have already started expansion work for the transmission lines. By the time the next wind season starts, this problem will be addressed, they assure. "We have a separate corridor for power evacuation and there are four separate transmission lines going from Kudankulam to the sub-station in Tirunelveli," says Sundar. These lines are exclusively-designed and in no way will they disturb wind energy production, he adds. The plant, he reiterates, is safe and both the state and central governments have established this.
The reactors at Kudankulam are being built by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited and Russia's Atomstroyexport company, a subsidiary of Rosatom (the regulatory body of the Russian nuclear complex). The Indian government signed a contract with the Soviet Union to build the plant in 1988, but construction started only in 1997 due to the political and economic upheaval in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The construction of the first two units was later halted in September 2011 following protests by villagers. Work at the plant finally resumed in March 2012. And now, it's days away from generating energy.