Mahagenco Proposes Adding 250-Megawatt Unit to Paras Power Station in India

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources India (Delhi, India)--Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (Mahagenco) (Mumbai, India), the power utility owned by the government of Maharashtra, has proposed adding a new, 250-megawatt (MW) unit to its Paras thermal power station (TPS) in the Akola district of the state. The Paras thermal power station is the oldest among all existing thermal power stations of Mahagenco.

The proposed expansion project involves the installation of an 810-ton-per-hour, coal-fired, circular fluidized bed combustion (CFBC) boiler to produce steam that will run a 250-MW steam turbine generator set. Mahagenco has acquired the 110.92 hectares of land required for the project, although the possession of land has been affected due to litigation pending with the state high court.

The coal requirement for the new unit has been estimated at 2.8 million tons per annum, which will be sourced from Mahanadi Coalfield Limited's (MCL) (Sambalpur, Odisha) Machhakata coal block, located in the Angul district of Odisha. MCL is a subsidiary of Indian coal major Coal India Limited (BSE:533278) (Kolkata, India). The unit will meet its water requirement of 8 million metric cubic meters from the adjoining Mun River.

Mahagenco has received terms of reference from India's Ministry of Environment and Forests (New Delhi, India) for the preparation of an environmental impact assessment report. According to Mahagenco sources, preparation of the report is now nearing completion, and a public hearing on the Energy Information Administration is expected to take place by June 2013.

Paras TPS started operations in 1961 with one 30-MW set. In 1967, another 30-MW unit was added to the plant. Both of these units have been decommissioned due to aging. The plant presently has an installed capacity of 500 MW, through two units of 250 MW apiece.

Mahagenco currently has an installed generation capacity of 10,237 MW, out of which 6,980 MW, nearly 75%, comprise coal-fired thermal power units. The utility has one gas-based generating station at Uran, with an installed capacity of 672 MW and 27 hydel projects with a total capacity of 2,585 MW.

Mahagenco has planned a capacity addition of 17,040 MW, of which 4,230 MW is under execution and 8,850 MW projects are in the advanced stages of planning. Further, Mahagenco has identified land for about 3,960 MW of projects at various locations in the state.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.