Sardar Nigam to enter into power generation

Two power houses to produce total 1450 MW electricity

The Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd, which is implementing the ambitious Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP), will make a foray into power generation by September, when the height of the Narmada dam will touch 110.64 metres.

The threshold level for generation of power is 110.64 metres.

Transmission lines have already been put up between the dam site at Kevadia Colony where the canal head power house (CHPH) and the river bed power house (RBPH) are located.

The CHPH and five generating units of 50 MW each have been kept ready for a long time, but they could not be utilised before the height reached 110.64 metres.

The prime minister is scheduled to commission the first unit of the RBPH on September 30.

There will be six units in the RPBH, each capable of generating 200 MW. Thus, while the CHPH will generate 250 MW when complete in about 18 months from now, the RPBH will be able to generate 1,200 MW.

"Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd will make a foray into electricity generation by September this year. Transmission lines to take electricity to the Gujarat Electricity Board have already been laid," said S K Mohapatra, managing director of the SSNNL.

He said the work on increasing the height of the dam from the existing Rs 100 metres to 110.64 metres before the onset of the monsoon is progressing.

An official of SSNNL said while transmission lines have been put up to supply electricity generated at the dam site to the GEB grid, the rate at which electricity will be sold to the board has not been finalised.

"The CHPH is ready. The first of the six units of the RBPH will be commissioned in September," he said.

The level of 110.64 metres of the SSP will be a turning point for the project, as this will be the level from where hydro power generation will start and water will flow into the canal system as per the project design.

Water flow into the canal system is managed at present through an interim arrangement of the irrigation bypass tunnel (IBPT). Once the height is raised to 110.64 metres, water will be used to generate electricity before being released into the canal, Mohapatra said.

Beginning March 18, when the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) permitted the dam height to be increased from 100 metres to 110.64 metres, the state government has planned to complete the work on increasing the height by 120 days. This will involve laying about two lakh cubic metres of concrete.

Once the dam height is increased to 110.64 metres, there will be an increase of 11,000 lakh cubic metres of water in the dam.

The storage capacity, which stood at 26,000 lakh cubic metres when the height was 100 metres, will increase to 37,000 lakh cubic metres when the height will reach 110.64 metres.