Old power plants to be made energy efficient

Faced with coal shortages and the rising prices of diesel and naptha, the power ministry has decided to focus on improving the performance of old and badly maintained plants in order to make up for the shortfall in power requirements.

An ambitious plan drawn up by the ministry aims to improve performance of 26 power plants with a plant load factor (PLF) of less than 60 per cent. The average PLF "" the ratio of the actual power generation to the installed capacity of a plant "" in India is 73.9 per cent.

"We have drawn up a short-term programme on improving PLF by 8-10 per cent within six months, a medium-term programme where some investments may be necessary and a long-term programme of three years where renovation and modernisation investments would be required," said RV Shahi, power secretary.

"The main problem with most of these plants is lack of adequate investment in renovation and modernisation. A team of officials from Central Electricity Authority and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) will visit these plants and draw up a roadmap to increase the PLF to 50 per cent in six months, 60 per cent in one year and 75 per cent in three years time," said a power ministry official.

Quarterly reviews will be held to ensure that these plants stick to the roadmap to increase production. The move is expected to result in an additional generation of 5000 MW of power each year.

NTPC has been roped in as it has technical expertise in operation, the official added. If the state government so wants, power plants run by the state electricity boards could be taken over by NTPC under the action plan.

The possibility of NTPC taking over the Barauni and Muzaffarpur plants in Bihar will be discussed with the Bihar state government. Both these plants, run by the state electricity board are located in disturbed areas and have very low PLF.

The Barauni plant has a PLF of 5.4 per cent, while the Muzaffarpur plant, which is a relatively new plant, has 0 PLF.

Discussions have already taken place with some other states, including Uttar Pradesh, on the possibility of NTPC taking over some plants there.

Among the other plants with very low PLFs are the Bongaigaon, Namrup and Chandrapur plants in Assam, Patratu in Jharkhand and Bokaro A, which is run by Damodar Valley Corporation.

Powering reform

• 26 units with plant load factor of less than 60% will be refurbished
• The move is expected to result in an additional 5,000 MW of generation each year
• States will have the option to hand over SEB-run power plants to NTPC
• Among the plants targeted are the ones in Barauni and Muzaffarpur (Bihar), Bongaigaon, Namrup, Chandrapur (Assam), Patratu and Bokaro A (Jharkhand)