KIOCL Ltd (formerly Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd) has commissioned a 5-MW solar power plant at Kathrikehal village of Tumakuru district in Karnataka.
This project will help meet partly the power requirement for KIOCL units at Mangaluru.
The estimated power generation from the plant is 10 million Kwh per annum and the approximate savings from the plant is put at ₹6.2 crore per annum.
KIOCL has entered into agreement with KPTCL (Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation), Bescom (Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company) and Msecom (Mangaluru Electricity Supply Company) for wheeling power generated at the solar power plant. The power is being consumed at KIOCL‘s pellet plant in Mangaluru.
The plant was successfully completed at a project cost of ₹24.44 crore (excluding GST) in March.
A company statement said the payback period is four years and eight months. The estimated lifecycle of the plant is 25 years.
The Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel, Dharmendra Pradhan, who launched the project virtually, said it would support the National Solar Mission Programme.
The Minister also inaugurated the barrel-type blender reclaimer at KIOCL’s pellet plant in Mangaluru. As part of modernisation of the 3.5 MTPA capacity pellet plant in Mangaluru, the company has installed a barrel-type blender reclaimer of 1000 tonnes per hour capacity at a total project cost of ₹17.50 crore.
Barrel-type blender reclaimer homogenously blends different types of iron ore fines received from various sources by its forward and backward movement, thereby, increasing the operational flexibility.
With this, the pellet plant can use different types of iron ore, enhance productivity, flexibility in operations and manufacture good quality pellets, the statement said.
KIOCL provided medical oxygen manufacturing units of capacity 1,000 cubic metres per day to supply 143 cylinders per day for Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Science in Mandya district under the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of the company, it said.
The company also donated 50 beds to the Government Hospital at Moodbidri in Dakshina Kannada district for purpose of Covid patients, it added.