There is further delay in the commissioning of the two 250 MW plants of Neyveli Lignite Corporation. The public sector power producer has told the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission that “re-commissioning of systems would be completed in June 2013.”

These two plants are based on the ‘circulating fluidised bed combustion’ technology, which has never been tried before for a project of this size in India. BHEL is the supplier of the equipment and the German company, Lentijes, is BHEL’s technology partner for this order.

The first of the units was linked to the grid on November 8 last year and the generation was maintained at a level of about 100 MW. However, in a few days some pressure parts burst open and the plant had to be stopped.

The re-commissioning of systems was taken up in January. Officials of BHEL told Business Line a month back that the plants would be back into generation in weeks. However, that was not to be the case.

NLC has sought the Commission’s permission for injecting “infirm power” (irregular supply) until either the date of commencement of commercial operations or August 31 of this month, whichever is earlier.

>ramesh.m@thehindu.co.in

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