Civil Work Delay Pushes Back Commissioning of Ukai Unit-6 in Gujarat

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The commissioning of Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited's (GSECL) (Vadodara, Gujarat) 500-megawatt (MW) expansion unit at the Ukai thermal power station has been held up by slow progress on civil and structural work in the main plant area. The work is being performed by contract agency Era Infra Engineering Limited (BSE:530323) (New Delhi). The unit, which was originally slated for commissioning in November 2010, is now expected to be on-stream by December this year.

According to GSECL sources, the primary reason for the delay is the deployment of an inadequate workforce by the contractor. In July 2008, Era Infra bagged the contract, valued at $2.08 million, from Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BSE:500103) (BHEL) (New Delhi), which is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the project. Era's scope of work for the contract involves all civil, structural and architectural work for the main power block and the balance-of-plant units.

"There was no delay in supply of equipment by BHEL, which has supplied all five operational units," said a source privy to the development, on the condition of anonymity. "The rescheduling occurred mainly due to a delay in the completion of major civil works."

The fuel requirement for the new unit has been estimated to be 356 tons-per-hour, and it would be sourced from the Machhakata captive coal block, which is in the Talcher coal-field area in Orissa.

The new unit is being developed within the premises of the existing power plant at Ukai. The water requirement for this unit would be met from the Ukai left-bank canal. The cost of the project has been estimated to be about $485 million.

Ukai thermal power station is near the Ukai Dam, in the Tapi district of Gujarat. The plant currently has an installed generation capacity of 850 MW, comprising two 120-MW units; two 200-MW coal-fired units; and a 210-MW unit. The ongoing expansion of the plant involves setting up an additional coal-handling-plant, an ash-handling plant, and a cooling tower next to the core generation unit.

GSECL is a wholly owned subsidiary of state-owned power enterprise Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUNVL) (Vadodara, Gujarat). GSECL currently has an installed generation capacity of 4,766 MW, which is realized through its fossil-fuel based plants and hydel generation units, while power capacities worth more than 1,445 MW are under various stages of implementation.

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