300-Mw Rosa unit commissioned; Full 1,200-Mw by March 2012.
Reliance Power (R-Power) today reached a power generation level of 900 Mw at its Rosa power plant in Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. The Anil Ambani-controlled company formally commissioned its 300-Mw second-phase unit, three months ahead of schedule.
The first phase of the project, comprising two units of 300 Mw each, are already connected to the grid and is operating at a high plant load factor.
CEO J P Chalasani said the 300-Mw unit reached full load capacity in the early hours on Wednesday. This was after it was coal-fired five days earlier, he told the media here.
By March, the company plans to commission the remaining 300-Mw unit to reach the optimum plant level of 1,200 Mw, three months before the June 2012 schedule specified in the power purchase agreement with the UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL). The entire power would be supplied to the state.
Now, the plant accounts for almost 15 per cent of the total energy consumption of UP. The first unit in phase I was commissioned exactly two years ago, on December 28, 2009.
The project has a lifespan of 25 years and is estimated at over Rs 6,000 crore. This makes it the largest independent power project in North India. Chalasani said the successful operation of the project had dispelled doubts about the efficacy of Chinese equipment. Rosa uses equipment supplied by Shanghai Electric. The first phase cost about Rs 3,100 crore.
The company may decide to expand Rosa to 2,400 Mw, depending factors such as availability of land, transmission infrastructure and availability of fuel. “Since the project started, we have not faced any problems related to coal shortage,” Chalasani said. This is, because “we maintain about 15 days coal stock and have coal import agreements”.
By December next year, the company plans a total portfolio of about 5,000 Mw power generation — including thermal, gas-based, hydro and solar — in different states.
Rosa had been allotted 75 cusecs of water from the Garrah river, a tributary of the Ganga. UP plans to double its power generation capacity in 2012 by adding 4,000 Mw of power.
This would be in line with the stated objective to add 25,000 Mw of generation capacity in the 12th Five year plan, to make UP a power-surplus state.
The state is targeting to invest Rs 52,000 crore in the transmission sector. Of this, the private sector share would be Rs 10,000 crore.
The state also plans to invest over Rs 31,000 crore in power distribution. Of this, electrification of rural hamlets would alone account for Rs 12,000 crore.
