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The Union Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday approved the Rs 22,000 crore two maiden thermal power generation units planned by Coal India Ltd (CIL) in collaboration with its subsidiaries.
These units, slated to come at pithead (in the vicinity of coal mines), are also part of the Centre's increased efforts to have more pithead units.
The CCEA approved 660 megawatt (Mw) Amarkantak supercritical coal-based thermal power plant (TPP) in Anuppur district of Madhya Pradesh, through a joint venture between CIL subsidiary South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) and Madhya Pradesh Power Generating Co Ltd (MPPGCL), owned by the state government.
The Cabinet also approved 1,600 Mw supercritical thermal power plant in Sundargarh district through Mahanadi Basin Power Ltd (MBPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), another arm of Coal India.
“CIL, the largest coal mining company in the world, will set up two pithead thermal power plants through its subsidiaries with a view to provide cheaper power to the country,” said the statement by the government. Senior company officials said the project would require 7-9 years to commence operations as the land acquisition, and technology partnership will soon begin now.
The Centre has been pushing state-owned companies to enter into power generation — both coal and renewable energy — in order to build sufficient power availability. In November, in a meeting with all state-owned power generators, Union Power Minister R K Singh said India would need 80 Gw of coal-based thermal power generation capacity to be built as against 27 Gw under construction. “Renewable energy capacity addition alone cannot help meet the rising electricity demand that has already peaked at an all-time high of 241 Gw in 2023,” Singh had said.
There is currently 25 Gw of thermal power capacity under various stages of development. Of this, close to 15 Gw is being constructed by state-owned power generation behemoth NTPC. The Centre has also planned 500 Gw of renewable power by the end of this decade.
Vikram V, vice-president and co-group head (corporate ratings) at ICRA said the government had been encouraging thermal power projects lately due to the surge in demand. “The commentary from the government is that India would require close to 80 Gw of additional thermal power capacity by 2030. The current pipeline of under-construction thermal projects is around 30 Gw, with another 7 Gw likely to be revived from the private sector. So for this additional capacity to come in, the projects need to be planned and awarded now,” Vikram said.
“The peak capacity touched this year was 240 Gw and if the demand were to grow by 7-7.5 per cent, additional thermal capacity that would be required by the end of the decade is estimated to be 60-70 Gw,” he said.
While renewable capacity would grow at its pace, the additional 30-35 Gw of thermal capacity over and above the capacity already under construction is required to meet the rising demand. “This is also in line with the Centre’s initiatives towards ensuring energy security,” he said.
The CCEA also approved equity capital infusion of Rs 823 crore by SECL in the joint venture company building the Amarkantak power units. It also approved equity capital of Rs 4,784 crore by MCL for its upcoming unit in Odisha. Equity Investment by CIL beyond 30 per cent of its net worth in the JV of SECL-MPPGCL and in MBPL was also approved by the CCEA.
