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The Telangana State Transmission Company (Transco) on Saturday said it has not cancelled Stage II of NTPC’s 2400 MW power plant to be set up at Ramagundam but has asked to defer its construction.
Transco said that it would take a decision at the right time depending upon the requirement of power in the state and the cost.
The power plant being set up at Ramagundam is not a pit head station. The Central Government allocated coal to this plant from the Mandakini B coal block in Orissa which is located at a distance of 950 kilometres (km).
As the coal has to be transported for 950 km, the cost of power-generation would be higher than the pithead plant.
The state’s transmission company claimed that the cost of the NTPC and other Central generating stations ranges from Rs 3.89/kilowatt hour (kwh) to Rs 4.60/kwh. The cost of generation of new NTPC plants at NTPC Kudigi plant is Rs 6.69/kwh and NTPC Vallur Rs 6.10/kwh.
The delivery point of all existing NTPC generating stations is at CTU (power grid) Sub-stations. Telangana has to incur additional transmission charges and losses of about Rs 0.45 paise/kwh.
In view of the high power generation cost of NTPC plants, many states are not taking power from the NTPC plants.
NTPC Kudigi units I & II are under reserve shut-down from 13.04.2019 and 13.05.2019, respectively, due to their high cost.
Further, the cost of setting-up the 4000 Mega Watt (MW) Damaracherla power plant is Rs 22, 958 crores. The amount being spent to meet the new environment norms has been pegged at Rs 3000 crore.
As per the Ministry of Power/CERC norms, any power plant has to be constructed with 70 debt and 30 per cent equity.
The NTPC Patratu power plant costs Rs 2258 crore more than the Damaracherla power plant for an equivalent 4000 MW. This results in less generation cost when compared to the NTPC power plant.
The Damaracharla plant would be run with 100 per cent indigenous coal with coal linkage from Singareni Colleries Company Limited.
Further, the State said the additional power requirement for Kaleshwaram project would be met by new plants being set up by TSGenco at Bhadradri (1080 MW), Damaracherla (4000 MW), renewable power (1400 MW) and market purchases.
In the recent bids called by Government of India, for supply of power for medium term, the rate obtained is Rs.4.41/kwh. This is less than the rates of new NTPC plants at Kudigi (Rs 6.69/kwh) and Vallur (Rs 6.10/kwh).
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