The Hindu Business Line : NTPC plans to enhance Ennore project capacity

Chennai, Aug. 26 Even as preparations for the foundation stone ceremony for the National Thermal Power Corporation’s 1,000 MW Ennore project on September 5 are under way, the public sector power producer is planning to enhance the capacity of the project by another 500 MW.

NTPC’s Chairman and Managing Director, Mr T. Sankaralingam, told Business Line that the addition of a third unit of 500 MW capacity would help bring down the overheads of the project.

The Ennore project, a joint venture with the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, will be put up with an investment of Rs 5,200 crore. The project will include a 200 million-litres-a-day desalination plant. BHEL will supply the equipment.

Cheyyur plant revival

Meanwhile, the company also intends to revive the Cheyyur plant, with an enhanced capacity. The project was conceived close to a decade ago for a capacity of 1,000 MW, but now NTPC intends to take it up further, perhaps even as high as 4,000 MW.

Earlier, the project was put on the backburner upon objections on environmental grounds, but Mr Sankaralingam said that the Cheyyur project would not face any environmental issues.

He said that NTPC was also interested in setting up an ultra mega power merchant plant. (A merchant power plant is one whose generation is not tied into a long-term power purchase agreement.) He noted that for a large-sized merchant plant, it was necessary to start with an anchor customer. There could be some short-term and medium-term contracts and a part of the generation could be sold on spot basis.

Wind farm

Mr Sankaralingam said that NTPC was looking at the feasibility of setting up a wind farm in shallow seas. (If this happens, it would be the first in the country.) He said that NTPC would set up a 200-250 MW ‘park’, going up to 1,000 MW by 2017. The park could house plants based on other non-conventional fuels such as biomass, he said.

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