The 660MW NTPC super thermal power plant at Barh is likely to be made commercially operational on July 15.
Bihar would get 330MW from the plant, as the Centre has allocated 50 per cent share from Barh’s Stage-II plant to the state. The plant is located 60km east of Patna.
It would be the second unit in the state, which would start generation after Muzaffarpur Thermal Power Station (MTPS). MTPS Unit I started generation formally on November 17 last year after the completion of renovation and modernisation work. MTPS’s second unit is expected to start production by the end of August 1 this year.
“We have received the schedule for inauguration of the plant. According to the schedule, Union minister of state for power (independent charge) Piyush Goyal would inaugurate Unit I of 660MW of stage II of the plant. The plant is fully ready after the trial. We can start commercial generation anytime,” an NTPC Barh official told The Telegraph.
Sources said before declaring the plant as commercially operational, it has to be run for 72 hours without any interruption at full load.
The unit was earlier scheduled for commercial generation in March this year but owing to a problem of tube leak in the plant, the inauguration was put off.
Now, the leak has been rectified. “We have tested the plant, which has successfully been run at its full load of 660MW in the past,” an official said.
Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), one of the largest engineering and manufacturing companies, which makes power plant equipment, is the contractor for supplying equipment like boilers, turbines and erecting the machinery for Barh plant.
Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Ltd (BSPHCL) chairman-cum-managing director and NTPC chairman-cum-managing director Arup Roy Choudhury and BHEL chairman-cum-managing director B. Prasad Rao had on June 18 visited the Barh plant to see the preparedness and bottlenecks faced in commissioning the plant. Choudhury had asked officials to make the plant operational by the end of June.
The Centre, in March 2012, had allocated 50 per cent of power as the home state’s share from the Barh phase-II plant. The state government would, instead, get 523MW (26.5 per cent) from three units of 660MW each (660x3=1980MW) from Stage I, which would be completed by the end of 2016.
Goyal was supposed to inaugurate the 660MW NTPC Barh Super Thermal Power Station on June 25 but it was deferred owing to the accident of the Dibrugarh-Rajdhani near Chhapra on that day, sources said.
The inauguration of the plant would make the state richer by 330 MW from central sector.
At present, Bihar gets on an average 2200 to 2400 MW of power supply to meet its energy requirement.
