NTPC Gets Green Nod for Unchahar Power Station Expansion

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources India (Delhi, India)-- The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of India's Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) (New Delhi) has granted environmental clearance to the proposed 500-megawatt (MW) expansion of state-owned NTPC Limited's (BSE: 532555) (New Delhi) Unchahar Thermal Power Station in Uttar Pradesh.

Located at Arkha village in the Rae Bareli district of the state in northern India, the power plant currently has an installed generation capacity of 1,050 MW through five 210-MW subcritical coal-fired units developed in three phases. The first 210-MW unit was commissioned in November 1988, followed by the commissioning of the second 210-MW unit in March 1989, while the fifth unit was commissioned in September 2006. All these units have been supplied and built by state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) (BSE: 500103) (New Delhi).

The current expansion envisages addition of a 500-MW subcritical coal-fired unit along with the associated Balance of Plant (BoP) units, which include Electrostatic Precipitators (ESP), Induced Draft cooling towers, coal and ash handling systems, fuel-oil handling plant as well as water pre-treatment and demineralization plants. All these new utilities would be developed within the existing plant area of 891 hectares. The coal requirement for the proposed unit has been estimated at 2.14 million tons per annum (MTPA). To reduce emission of sulfur dioxide, NTPC has proposed to use a blend of domestic and imported coal. The domestic coal requirement of 1.5MTPA will be met from the Talaipalli and Pakri Barwadih coal blocks located in the North Karanpura coalfields area in the Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand.

NTPC has proposed to construct an independent coal handling plant of 850 tons per hour (TPH) capacity for the new unit with parallel double stream of belt conveyors along with the facilities for receiving, unloading, crushing and conveying of crushed coal to the boiler bunkers.

The water requirement for the plant has been pegged at 1,980 cubic meters per hour, which has been proposed to be sourced from the adjoining Sharda Sahayak canal and Dalmau pumped canal through the existing pipelines at the plant site.

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