The Tamil Nadu Government has decided to set up a 660 MW supercritical thermal power plant at Ennore at a cost of Rs 3,960 crore, announced the Chief Minister, Ms J. Jayalalithaa, in the Assembly today.
In a suo motu statement, she said the 40-year-old Ennore thermal power plant to the North of Chennai was to have been replaced with a new 600 MW thermal plant. But the supercritical plant technology offers the benefits of more power from less coal and better environmental conservation. The prefeasibility report is being readied and the thermal plant will start generating power by the end of 2015, she said.
Tamil Nadu has fully exploited the hydro-power resource; the options for expanding thermal power plants were limited because of the coal shortage. The Centre has not allocated adequate coal for the power plants in operation, she said.
Liquefied Natural Gas is an alternative option as a fuel for power generation. The State Government has entered into an agreement with Indian Oil Corporation to set up LNG terminal. It will explore the possibility of setting up a 500 MW power project using this fuel, she said.
Similarly, the Government will consider establishing a 500 MW LNG power plant using the fuel available from GAIL’s Kochi-Bangalore pipeline that will traverse Coimbatore, Salem and Dharmapuri.
Power projects announced last year
On the status of the power projects announced in the 2011-12 budget, Ms Jayalalithaa said the 800 MW expansion of the Udankudi Thermal Plant will go on stream in 2015-16. The feasibility report is under preparation.
The 1,600 MW Uppur Thermal Plant will go on stream in 2015. The prefeasibility and the draft plan have been finalised, Anna University has been given the job of compiling the Coastal Regulation Zone boundary study, and the tenders are being scrutinised to appoint a consultant and for an Environmental Impact Assessment study. The terms of reference for the study are awaited from the Union Environment Ministry.
The 800 MW Tuticorin Stage IV Thermal plant will start generating power in 2015. The Anna University has submitted the CRZ boundary report and a consultant has been appointed for doing a feasibility study and a detailed project report.
The Chief Minister also gave details of projects totalling over 3,800 MW of power generation capacity that had been started in 2002 and 2003 when her government had previously been in power. But these projects had been delayed following the change in Government. These projects have now been speeded up and will soon go on stream. The severity of power cuts would also come down from June, she said.
These include the 1,000 MW Vallur Thermal Power Project near North Chennai to be set up jointly with NTPC following an agreement in July 2002. The thermal plant will start generating power in stages in June, November and in June 2013.
Joint venture with NLC
A joint venture agreement was signed with Neyveli Lignite Corporation for a 1,000 MW power plant in Tuticorin in June 2003. The first phase of this project will start in June 2013 and the second in September. This plant was to have supplied 750 MW power to Tamil Nadu. But subsequently this project has been considered a Central power project and Tamil Nadu will now get 387 MW, she said.
Apart from these projects, one unit of the 2x600 MW, North Chennai Stage – II project will generate power in August and the other from December onwards, she said.