North Chennai Stage III trial operation to be delayed

CHENNAI: The 800 MW North Chennai Stage - III supercritical thermal power plant is likely to commence trial operation only by end of this fiscal year as against the expected deadline of December this year.

Electricity Minister V Senthilbalaji in June this year said that the work on the NCTPS - III would commence trial operation in September and it would be commissioned by December.

Sources said that the works are underway to complete the construction at the earliest. “It is the first-of-its-kind 800 MW supercritical thermal power project in the state. It will be the biggest industry in the city and it will be five times the size of the Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL). Hence there are a lot of works underway considering its size. We are trying to complete at the earliest, ” sources added.

The Rs 8,723 crore project was executed by two contractors BHEL and BGR Energy Systems Ltd (BGRESL). The BHEL was awarded the engineering and procurement contract for the boiler, turbine and generator (BTG) package while the BGRESL for the balance of plant (BoP) package and related civil works.

The work commenced in 2016 and the plant was scheduled to be commissioned in July 2019.

On Saturday, Minister Senthilbalaji along with TANGEDCO CMD Rajesh Lakhoni inspected the NCTPS - III works and held a review meeting with the on-site officials.

In the review meeting, the minister instructed the officials to complete all the works by end of this fiscal year 2022-23 to commence generation. Sources said that the minister also reviewed the works like the coal handling plant, ash handling plant and desalination plant. The cooling water pipeline works should be completed on a war footing by engaging more personnel and machinery.

“Considering the increasing power demand, the thermal power project should be completed at the earliest, ” the minister told the officials.