Government has asked country's largest power producer NTPC to carry out a feasibility study for shifting its 360 MW naptha-based Kayamkulam power plant in Kerala to some other location.
"The Kerala government recently requested the Centre to shift the plant to somewhere else. The Centre accepted its request and asked NTPC for carrying out the techno-economic feasibility study on the same," the source said.
Sources said the state wants to shift the plant, which is fuelled by naphtha, to a place well connected with a gas pipeline.
According to an NTPC official, the plant had been facing problem over the past as power cost from this plant is high and there are not enough buyers for the energy generated at the plant.
"The plant load factor (PLF) of this plant in the current year is 5.69 per cent," the official said. A PLF is a measure of average capacity utilisation. I
The Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Plant (also known as Rajiv Gandhi CCPP Kayamkulam is of NTPC and is fuelled by imported and indigenous naphtha. Kerala is the major beneficiary of Kayamkulam Thermal Power Plant.
The power plant is located at Choolatheruvu in Alappuzha district of Kerala.
NTPC has a total installed capacity of 45,548 MW, including 39,352 MW through directly owned units and 6,196 MW through subsidiaries and joint ventures. It has 18 coal fired, 7 gas based, eight solar renewable, one hydroelectric and seven subsidiaries/joint venture power stations, according to its website.
