The Hindu Business Line : CPCL plans Rs 100-cr wind farm

Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd plans to invest Rs 100 crore in a wind farm to supply power to its desalination plant coming up at Ennore to the north of Chennai, according to its Director-Operations, Mr A. Kasturirangan.

Addressing a seminar on water resources and waste management organised here on Thursday by the Indian Chemical Council, he said Chennai Petroleum was keen on making its refinery self-sufficient in water.

It was recycling its own effluent, recycling the city's sewage and putting up a seawater desalination facility.

But desalination is power-intensive and to keep costs low the company plans to set up a 17 MW wind farm at the Palakkad Pass, near Coimbatore.

The proposal is coming up for board approval soon.

Recycling and reuse

Recycling and reuse are key options for industries to conserve and use water cost effectively.

Also, water will be available consistently and industry will not need to compete with supply for domestic use - a priority for governments.

He said Chennai Petroleum learnt its lesson a few years ago when the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board cut supply to industries to be able to maintain supply for domestic consumers.

The refinery was forced to shut down for a month.

The decision to bring down dependence on piped water supply was taken then and the company had expanded its sewage water treatment facility, apart from treating its own effluent.

Chennai Petroleum has a 2.5 million litre a day sewage water treatment plant and another of equal capacity would soon go on stream. The 5-million-litre desalination plant will start production mid-2007.

These would make the refinery entirely self-sufficient. The refinery needs about 7 million gallons a day.

Though desalination is a costly option, it is comparable to the piped water supply at about Rs 60 a kilolitre.

The cost of treated sewage water is over Rs 30 a kilolitre.

But the advantage is the supply is assured and the cost is stable, piped water supply charges are bound to go up in the coming years which would make recycling more attractive.

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