The Transmission Corporation of Telangana Ltd (TS-Transco) has directed the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) to defer the second phase of the power producer’s Telangana Super Thermal Power Project at its existing power plant at Ramagundam.
NTPC is currently setting up two 800 megawatts (MW) units as part of the first phase, and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao inspected the progress made on May 18 at the 2,600 MW Ramagundam plant. However, the second phase slated to establish capacity worth 2,400 MW (3 x 800 MW) has now been asked to be kept on hold.
“The state government would take an appropriate decision at the right time depending on the requirement of power in Telangana and the cost of energy from the NTPC’s new project being set up under the provisions of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act,” TS-Transco officials said. The statement also made it clear that the cost of energy from the project would be high since the central government had allotted coal from the Mandakini-B coal block. “As the coal has to be transported for 950 km... the cost of power generation would be high,” the officials said. Further, in addition to the cost of energy at the delivery point, Telangana has to incur additional transmission charges and losses of about 45 paise per unit. In view of such high cost of power generation, Telangana has deferred the plans.
TS-Transco also pointed out that many states have stopped taking costly power from NTPC plants in view of the high power generation costs. Citing an example, they said that two units of NTPC Kudgi (2,400 MW) in Karnataka had been under a reserve shut down from April 13 and May 13, respectively, due to high power generation costs. In the recent power auctions called by the Centre for medium-term (3 years) supply of energy, the tariff obtained was Rs 4.41 per unit. “The rate is much lesser compared to the rates of new NTPC plants: Rs 6.69 per unit for energy from Kudigi and Rs 6.10 per unit for energy from Vallur,” the officials added.