The Telangana State Power Generation Corporation Ltd (TS-Genco) has decided to retire eight generating units with a total capacity of 720 MW at its Kothagudem Thermal Power Station (KTPS) by March 2019 in tune with the guidelines of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) as they have outlived their utility.
“One unit of 60 MW capacity has already been retired from generation of power from May 20 this year and the remaining seven units - three with 60 MW capacity each - and four with 120 MW each - will be shut down permanently in a phased-manner till the end of 2018-19,” Chairman and Managing Director of TS-Genco D. Prabhakar Rao told The Hindu .
Played a key role
The eight units were commissioned between July 1966 to January 1978 and have played a key role in energisation of combined Andhra Pradesh State and later self-sufficiency in energy sector till the late 1908s.
“The processing of retiring the generating units has been phased out so as to not to leave impact on the increasing need of energy in Telangana,” Mr. Prabhakar Rao noted.
However, even before these units are retired from generation, the 800 MW super critical unit under implementation would be pressed into service to make up the loss of generation capacity in advance.
The new unit is scheduled to be synchronised with the grid in December this year and going on commercial operation a few days after its linking with the grid.
“As directed by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao during a meeting in Delhi last month, we (TS-Genco) have plans to set up one more super critical generation unit with 800 MW at KTPS as replacement to the outlived units,” he said. Mr. Prabhakar Rao stated that the new unit would be planned only after dismantling the outgoing units.
Stating that the processing of dismantling the units would take about six months time, the Genco chief indicated that setting up the new unit replacing the old units would not be that difficult in terms of getting clearances since it would come up in the location where the eight outgoing units are existing now.
Land and other requirements such as water and coal being utilised by the eight units would be diverted to the new unit, he explained. The TS-Genco would be in a position to propose the new 800 MW unit by December 2019.
On the 4×270 MW Bhadradri Thermal Power Station at Manuguru, Mr. Prabhakar Rao said light up of boilers for two units would be done by March next and all the four units would be synchronised with the grid by December-end 2018.