Essar Power on Wednesday said that its Learning & Development Centre at Salaya, Jamnagar, has been recognized by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Union Ministry of Power, as a Power Training Institute (PTI) for providing training and certification to power plant engineers.

Depending upon the course, from 25 to over 150 engineers (through video conferencing) could be trained at the EPLC at a time. With this, Essar Power has joined only a handful of organisations in the country to have an in-house training and certification institute, the company said in a statement here.

The Union Power Ministry expects India to double power production from thermal plants to two trillion units and a five times rise in production from renewable sources to 300 billion units. As per the government’s stated goal of providing 24x7 power supply to all of the country by 2019, Essar Power will be able to contribute towards this milestone by training power plant engineers.

As per central government rules, no person is authorized to work in a power plant of 100 MW and above capacity, unless being adequately qualified and having successfully undertaken training in PTIs recognized by CEA. In addition, existing employees also need to undergo regular refresher courses at such institutes to remain eligible to continue working at the power plants. Hence, for power plants, training is an integral function of the plant operation.

Essar Power Learning Centre (EPLC) is equipped with classrooms, 2X600 MW simulator with Remote Control Unit (RCU) technology, Video Bridge facility, library, labs, and workshops. The RCU technology facilitates hands-on training on the simulator for the associates based at distant locations like Mahan, with the simulator physically being located at Salaya. Earlier, Essar engineers were sent to external institutes for such certifications. Companies other than Essar Power can also train their engineers at this centre.

Essar Power, a leading private power producer, owns power plants in India and Canada with a total generation capacity of 6,700 MW.

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