MANCHERIAL : Construction of the third unit (800 MW) of the Singareni Thermal Power Plant, which has completed one year, is likely to begin in April next year and will take 48 months to complete.
Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), which has been producing coal for 125 years, has entered into power production too by launching the first unit (600 MW) which went into commercial operations on September 25, 2016. The second unit was launched on December 2 of the same year.
At the Singareni thermal power plant (STPP), coal and water are used to produce high-temperature steam (ranging between 540 and 567 degrees) which rotates turbines generator to produce electricity.
The ash, generated in the process, is not let out into air but is mixed with water and supplied to cement manufacturing companies in the vicinity who make bricks out of it. This is done to avoid pollution. As of now, ash is given free of cost to the cement companies and officials are mulling to commercialise it too.
The 2X600 MW STPP is located at Pegadapalli in Jaipur mandal in Mancherial district and is spread over 1,983 acres. The third unit too will be established on the same premises.
Ramesh Babu, STPP deputy general manager, said that the water needed for the plant is sourced from Godavari river at Shetpally village and stored in a reservoir spread across 100 acres.
“Even if we don’t get the river water, the water available here is sufficient for the plant for 15 days,” Ramesh Babu said.
Sanjay Kumar Sur, executive director, and other officials said that within a short span, STPP jumped to the sixth position among the best-performing power stations in the country. They said that Unit-2 achieved 100 per cent plant load factor (PLF) in February, May and November of this year and Unit-1 achieved the same in April. In 2016-17, a total of 3,541.46 MU of power was generated by the two units. In 2017-18 till the end of November, 6254.97 MU of power was generated.