500 MW power project to be commissioned tomorrow in MP

Jabalpur, June 27 (UNI) With the commissioning of a new 500 MW unit, the Sanjay Gandhi Thermal Power Project at Birsinghpur in Madhya Pradesh's Umaria district will attain an installed capacity of 1,360 MW -- maximum in the state.

The state's first 500 MW unit was successfully synchronised on June 18. The project would increase the Madhya Pradesh Power Generating Company's (MPPGC) installed capacity from 3,044 MW to 3,544 MW.

The project will feed entire Madhya Pradesh, especially tribal-dominated Shadol and Umaria districts, through 220 KV Birsinghpur-Jabalpur line. .

MPPGC Chairman-cum-Management Director D N Prasad said the Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has executed the third phase of the Rs 2,300-crore project on a turnkey basis.

The project had been financed through loan from the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) besides equity from the state government. The project will generate 3,723 million unit electricity every year after the plant becomes operational.

Mr Prasad said Consumption of coal had been estimated at 27.8 lakh metric tonne every year, while water consumption would be around 1,600 cubic metre every hour.

In the first phase of the project, two units of 210 MW each were set up in 1993 and 1994 respectively. In the second phase, another 210 MW unit capacity was installed in 1999.

In order to ensure continuous water supply to the project, a dam had been built on Johra river. A 20 MW hydro power unit is operational on this dam since 1991.

The Sanjay Gandhi Thermal Power Project has bagged several national level awards for power production and minimum fuel consumption. It generated 5,430.41 million unit power in 2006-07 with a plant utilisation factor of 73.80 per cent.

UNI