A number of national and multi-national power companies including Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Enron and public sector navaratna National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) are vying to join Cochin Refineries Ltd (CRL) in its proposed 500 mw power project.
As many as 21 bids have been received by the oil PSU for the project, to be based on vacuum residue liquid fuel which CRL has in surplus. K L Kumar, chairman and managing director, CRL, said the refinery was negotiating with the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) for selling the entire electricity from the project.
CRL is presently working on a detailed feasibility report for the project, which it expects to submit to the Union petroleum ministry by November for further action. The cost of the project would be worked out after the detailed report was prepared, Kumar said. Within three months the corporation would decide on who its partner would be for the project, he added.
While the refinery would retain 26 per cent share in the project, likely to have shorter gestation period than a thermal power project of the same size, 26 per cent would be shared by its joint venture partner. The KSEB is expected to have an 11 per cent share and the rest would be shared between the domestic and multinational funding agencies.
Apart from the Japanese multinationals Marubeni and Mitsubishi, a few US companies and the Bombay Suburban Electric Supply Company are also believed to have bid for the project which, according to power industry sources, was estimated to cost around Rs 2,000 crore. The plant would be a combination of gas and steam turbine and promoters would look for the appropriate technology shortly, it is learnt.
About the environmental aspects of the use of residual fuel for the project, likely to be set up near the refinery, Kumar said the feasibility report would also incorporate effluent treatment and it would be quite in conformity with the norms of both the Central and state pollution control boards.
He added that the refinery already had its own captive generation facilities and generation from the proposed project would be entirely for commercial use. (PTI)
