Thermal power plants can save up to Rs 10,000 crore annually by improving internal efficiencies, according to S. Raghupathy, Executive Director of the CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre.

Speaking at a two-day power plant summit hosted by the CII, he said thermal plants need to invest about Rs 15,000 crore over the next two years. This would enable them to drastically improve their plant efficiencies. They could recover the investments made in upgradation and new technologies within three years.

The CII Green Business Centre has partnered with NTPC, Tata Power and some international companies to facilitate this process which fits in well with the PAT (perform, achieve and trade) scheme. Several leading international agencies, services providers from the US, Europe and Japan are keen to take part in the process of revamping the existing older projects.

Modernisation of thermal power plants is a continuous process where some of the old technologies and practices give way to new power efficient processes and control systems. According to CII estimates, power plants can save about 3-5 per cent of their production costs by adapting new processes and bringing down water consumption. This would pay them both in the near term as well as in the longer term.

Thomas Joseph, Executive Director, Operations, NTPC, who is also Chairman of the Power Plant Summit, said the demand for electricity in India is likely to go up to 3,00,000 MW by 2017. This huge requirement could be met by capacity augmentation, resolving fuel availability, ensuring reliability issues and adopting efficient ways of generating electricity.

Speaking on ‘Continuous performance improvement,’ Joseph said the theme addresses the need for continued focus on achieving world-class standards. The improvement in plant efficiencies would help support industry comply with the PAT scheme.

rishikumar.vundi@thehindu.co.in

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