The Hindu Business Line : Tech constraint trips plan for cheaper power

EVEN as thermal power plants globally are shifting to the highly efficient 660 MW-based supercritical sets, India's quest to produce cheaper power in the long run through this energy-efficient technology has received a setback.

Despite the Government's target to set up 15.6 per cent of the additional thermal capacity during the 10th Plan period using the efficient 660 MW units, not a single station using the new technology is expected to come up during the current Plan period, according to Power Ministry estimates.

The Government has cited technological constraint as the primary reason for the delay.

Going by global experience, plants based on the new technology have shown a 40-45 per cent efficiency improvement against conventional coal-fired stations, thereby bringing about lower consumer tariffs.

"Even after discounting for the cost of technology absorption in the initial years, the shift to the supercritical thermal platform is widely expected to bring about lower consumer tariffs of around 20-25 per cent in the medium to long term, once the utilities start passing on the benefits of their improved efficiency to the end users," an official with a power generation utility said.

National Thermal Power Corporation — which was scheduled to develop five of its projects during the current Plan period using the 660-MW technology — has managed to place plant orders for just one station so far.

However, the commissioning of even this station is set to slip into the 11th Plan period.

With the introduction of the 660-MW technology on the back burner, over reliance on the less energy-efficient 250 MW and 500 MW units is likely to continue.

In sharp contrast, the US, China, Japan, South Africa and European countries have been widely adopting supercritical technology for decades now.

Besides efficiency improvements of nearly 45 per cent over the normal sub-critical plants, the supercritical units come with the added advantage of significantly lower emissions for a given power output.

In fact, over 400 supercritical plants are in operation worldwide.

Of the five NTPC projects which were to come up using the superior 660-MW platform during the current Plan period, orders for two — the Barh and North Karan Pura projects — are yet to be placed, with less than two years left for the current Plan period.

The unit size of both the Kehalgaon Super Thermal Power Station and the second stage of the Sipat project has been revised from 660 MW to 500 MW.

In the case of the 1320-MW Sipat-I project, the only station coming up based on the 660-MW technology, the main plant order was placed in April 2004, and the units would be commissioned only by the 11th Plan period.

Admitting that the delay in the introduction of the new technology was a retrograde step, a senior Government official involved in the exercise said, "In light of tendering difficulties encountered for Sipat - I, NTPC had to shift to the proven 500-MW platform to ensure that other projects do not get delayed beyond the 10th Plan period."

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