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The first unit of 2X 363.3 MW gas-based ONGC Tripura Power Company (OTPC) at Palatana in Tripura will be fully operational this week. The Rs 3,500-crore project conducted trial generation from the unit last month.
“The first unit will be synchronised in combined cycle mode this week,” a source told Business Line .
Gas-based units generally have two parts to optimise fuel costs. The mother turbine is fuelled by gas. The heat generated by the mother unit helps run additional capacities.
OTPC has already tested the functioning of the mother turbine of the first unit. Now the entire unit of 363 MW capacity will be put on stream.
Trouble ahead
But that will surely be the beginning of a trouble. The proposed 661-km transmission network connecting national grid at Bongaigaon in Assam is far from ready.
OTPC’s transmission joint venture with Power Grid — North-East Power Transmission Company (NEPTC) — has so far been successful in commissioning evacuation facilities up to Silchar (246 km) in Assam.
The generation unit depends on local demand, which is not sufficient to run such a plant at optimal capacity.
The state-level distribution systems of the two major beneficiary States Assam (300 MW) and Tripura (200 MW) have failed to upgrade the state-level evacuation systems to the desired levels so as to take delivery of high voltage power from the OTPC network. The result is that OTPC will suffer from viability concerns till NEPTC connects the project to national grid.
Environment clearances
Sources point out that dilly dallying on the part of Assam Government in granting due environment and forest clearances is a major reason behind the delay in completion of the Rs 1,800-crore transmission line that will pass through a couple of reserve forests and rivers.
The irony is, NEPTC has reportedly made sufficient progress in laying transmission network across Brahmaputra near Bongaigaon, which was technically the most challenging part of the entire project.
“We are now near-ready to take the line across Brahmaputra. And, if due clearances are available now, the entire evacuation system may be ready by next summer,” says a source in the transmission joint venture.
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