As part of its plans to establish solar power plants with 300 megawatt renewable energy (RE) capacity in the coal belt area, Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) has inaugurated a 15 MW plant in the Ramagundam-3 area on Friday for captive consumption.
Director (Electrical & Mechanical) of SCCL D. Satyanrayana Rao switched on the plant and integrated it with the 132 KV sub-station there. The 15 MW plant in the area has been established as part of the 50 MW plants planned there.
According to the company officials, establishment of a total of 129 MW solar plants would be completed by December-end this year. As part of the first phase plants of 129 MW capacity, in Manuguru, Illendu, Ramagundam-3 and thermal power plant sites, 10 MW plant on the premises of the thermal power plant was launched on February 10 this year followed by 30 MW plants at Manuguru on July 30.
With the launch of the 15 MW plant in the Ramagundam-3 area on Friday, the capacity of solar plants launched by SCCL so far has gone up to 55 MW. The Ramagundam-3 area would have another plant with 35 MW capacity and another 39 MW capacity plants in Illendu area were in the final stages of establishment/construction.
Stating that phase-two would have solar plants with 90 MW capacity and third-phase would have 81 MW capacity plants, the SCCL officials said the entire planned capacity of 300 MW would be completed by December-end next year. Contracts for establishment of the second and third phase plants have already been handed over to two agencies.
On the significance of the 15 MW capacity plant launched in Ramagundam-3 area on Friday, the officials said it would save ₹17 crore to the company every year by supplying 220 million units of energy to the nearby residential quarters of the company. The company was purchasing energy from the Northern Discom for the purpose now at ₹5.65 per unit but the cost of energy from the captive solar plant with 15 MW capacity would be ₹3.54 per unit only.
The 40 MW plants launched in February and July this year had already saved ₹2.97 crore by generating 14.26 million units of energy from the thermal power plant (10 MW) and Manuguru area (30 MW) solar plants, the company officials said adding that SCCL was purchasing 700 million units of energy from the Discom every year and the completion of 300 MW plants would help meet 500 million units of the total requirement saving ₹120 crore every year to the company.
