Tamil Nadu Newsprint & Papers Ltd. (TNPL) will be taking up ₹607 crore worth of projects that will include energy efficiency improvement via the revamping of steam and power systems (RSPS), 2MW rooftop solar, and a 500 M3 wastewater treatment plant.
The Revamping of Steam and Power System (RSPS) # 2 shall be carried out for seamless integration of RSPS # 2 with the existing coal feeding system and steam and power distribution system.
“This is estimated to be completed by June 2025 with a capital outlay of ₹520 crore, out of which ₹100 crore would be spent in the current year,” according to M Sai Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of TNPL.
The Revamping of Steam and Power System (RSPS) # 2, though initiated in the year 2019, was kept in abeyance due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the project implementation is now proposed to be taken up. It shall be carried out in a phased manner for a seamless integration of RSPS #2 with the existing coal feeding systems and steam and power distribution systems.
This project envisages the installation of two high-pressure boilers to have a reliable supply of utilities like steam and power for the mill operations.
TNPL has a programme to implement a floating solar project with a capacity of 2 MW at an estimated cost of about ₹12 crore this fiscal.
The company, in which the Government of Tamil Nadu owns 35.32 per cent, has already developed captive power plants with a capacity of 103.69 MW (as of March 31, 2023). Besides this, TNPL has wind farms with an installed capacity of 35.5 MW. In FY23, the company generated 394.51 lakh units of green power.
The company also proposes to install a 500 M3/day wastewater treatment plant at Unit-1 to treat effluent and reuse it internally for mill operation, thereby reducing the rate of discharge of effluent to less than 25 M3/MT of paper with an estimated project cost of ₹75 crore.
Addressing the company’s annual general meeting recently, Sai Kumar said TNPL has set out a vision to be the market leader in paper and paperboards, and as part of that, the company would aim to reach production of 1 million tonnes by 2030 (up from the projected 6 lakh plus tonnes in FY24) and to be the most preferred supplier. “In this context, the company has prepared a roadmap for the next 5 years,” he added.
TNPL is also exploring new segments to forward integrate into value-added products using paper and boards as raw materials and is in active discussions with paper machine manufacturers to get into newer categories of value-added papers.