NTPC to share Simhadri power with South

Contrary to the claims of the Andhra Pradesh government over the 1,000-mega watt Simhadri expansion project, the National Thermal Power Corporation has entered into power purchase agreements with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka besides Andhra. It is expected to ink a similar pact with Kerala soon.

It may be recalled that the NTPC had dedicated the entire power of the existing Simhadri project of a similar size, located at Visakhapatnam, to Andhra Pradesh.

The present government has been asking the corporation to extend the same privilege with regard to the new capacity addition that will be available from the year 2010-11 also. But the increased power demand across the southern grid has apparently led the NTPC to act otherwise.

Disclosing this here, AN Dave, regional executive director (South) said the PPAs had already been entered with Discoms of Andhra, Escoms of Karnataka and the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board while the agreement with the Kerala power utility was expected next week.

Though the actual allocation of power to each of these states from the expansion project will be decided at a later date, Andhra is expected to get 33 per cent share in line with the NTPC's overall contribution to the state grid, according to Dave. The cost of the expansion project is estimated at Rs 4,844 crore and it is expected to sell power at Rs 2.30 per unit.

The corporation has also been pumping in an additional 2,000 Mw power from its Talcher plant to the southern grid. This is apart from the close to 4,000-Mw installed capacity being operated by it in Andhra and Kerala.

NTPC generated 20,247 million units of power at 88.90 PLF (plant load factor) during the last financial year, compared with 19,690 mu in the previous year in spite of loss of generation on account of grid restrictions.

Dave said efforts to start work on the much-delayed 1,950 combines cycle power project proposed at an estimated investment of over Rs 7,600 crore at Kayamkulam in Kerala were still on.

"The two issues "" pricing of LNG fuel and water connectivity "" are causing the delay and we hope to resolve them in the near future," he added. The figures provided by Dave suggests the power demand for the first 11 months in the southern region has almost been met.

As compared with the demand of 1.62 lakh mu, the grid could handle about 1.58 lakh mu of power leaving a gap of just 2.5 per cent. The situation, however, is quite different with the onset of summer.