NTPC's Farakka Power Plant Capacity Up to 2,100 Megawatts

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources India (Delhi, India)--After a stalemate of about six months, India's state-owned power enterprise NTPC Limited (BSE:532555) (New Delhi, India) has begun commercial generation using the sixth 500-megawatt (MW) unit at its Farakka super-thermal power station.

With the commencement of generation from the unit, the operating capacity of the plant increased to 2,100 MW. Designed and developed by government-owned equipment maker BHEL Limited (BSE:500103) (New Delhi, India), the unit was synchronized and commissioned in March 2011, but could not achieve full load due to an insufficient coal supply to the plant.

The Farakka Power Station, which began operations in January 1986, has an installed generation capacity of 1,600 MW via two 300-MW units and two 500-MW units that were developed in the early 1990s under a Phase II expansion. The new unit has been added under a Phase III expansion, the cost of which has been estimated to be approximately $570 million.

It has been estimated that about 300 tons of coal per day will be required to run the new unit at 70% plant-load factor. The plant, which is at Nabarun in West Bengal, meets its fuel needs from the linked mines in the Rajmahal coal field area of Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) (Ranchi, Jharkhand), as well as imports from overseas coal mines.

The water requirement for the plant is met from the Farakka Feeder Canal. The power plant supplies power to the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Sikkim, Assam and Tripura.

With an installed capacity of 34,854 MW, NTPC is the largest power-generating firm in the country. Presently, NTPC generates power primarily from coal and gas. The company is diversifying into hydropower, coal mining and power-equipment manufacturing.

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