With several coal-fired shore-based power projects on the anvil, north Andhra is set to emerge as a major power generation centre in the next three to four years.
NTPC has already commissioned 500x4 MW Simhadri Thermal Power Station near Parawada of Visakhapatnam – the first in the region. Another private plant by Hinduja National Power Corporation Limited with a capacity of 1,040 MW is getting ready for commissioning shortly. The new unit is located at Palavalasa, about 50 km from here.
NTPC has been recently allotted 1200 acres at Pudimadaka near Atchutapuram for establishing 500x8 MW power plant with an investment of Rs.20,000 crore. The company has promised to supply 85 per cent of power generated by the project to AP grid. “This project will be implemented with super critical technology on a fast-track mode,” APIIC Chairman P. Krishnaiah has told The Hindu.
NTPC is getting ready to conduct EIA and other studies. NTPC sources said they would install electro static precipitator with 99.99 per cent efficiency with ash pond disposal of 4 per cent less than the conventional system. Carbon dioxide emission would be kept at bare minimum and state of the art technology of high concentration of slurry disposal system would be adopted or ash pond, the sources said.
A proposal is pending for 4x660 MW power plant at Komarada in Vizianagaram by Alfa Infra Prop.
Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) is in the process of establishing 6x1594 MW nuclear power plant near Kovvada in Srikakulam. Incidentally, Srikakulam district will become the beehive of activity for power generation with two more mega projects in the pipeline. East Coast Energy Private Ltd is setting up two-stage 2,640 MW power plant at Bhavanapadu.