KPCL on track to add 4,000 MWcapacity

The Karnataka government has announced that it will add 4,000 MW of power generation capacity to the state grid over the next four years through the state-owned Karnataka Power Corporation Limited "" KPCL.

Announcing this on Monday, Karnataka's minister for public works & energy H D Revanna said: "We are pretty aggressive on adding a good amount of capacity to improve the power scenario in the state and KPCL is doing appreciably in delivering the required capacity. We are targetting to add 4,000 MW over the next four years and we are on track to achieve this."

KPCL currently has an installed capacity of 4,420 MW through a mix of hydel and thermal and this addition of 4,000 MW will basically be from its proposed projects at Bellary (thermal), Almatti (hydel), Bidadi (gas-based), Varahi and Gundiya (both hydel) in addition to the ongoing unit additions at Raichur power plant.

KPCL on Monday also announced that it has totally revamped one of its oldest hydel power plants at Shivasamudram at a cost of Rs 75 crore. A spokesperson for KPCL said that the 100-year-old plant, which generates 42 MW was in need of a total overhaul with new technology.

This will see it generating a total of 180 million units at its peak capacity. KPCL has gone in for a debt of Rs 48 crore for the project from the Power Finance Corporation. The renovation and modernisation works were carried out by VA Tech and ABB India.

This revamp was initiated by the national committee set up by the Central Electricity Authority. The authority had stated that priority should be given to renovation and modernisation of the hydro power stations in the country.

With this revamp, KPCL has a total hydel installed capacity of 2,930 MW which will generate close to 9,000 million units this year and it is backed by good monsoon.

Last year the KPCL generated a total of 6,600 million units from its installed hydel capacity.