NEEPCO project in Tripura to run by water, thermal heat

AGARTALA - The state-owned North Eastern Electric Power Corp (NEEPCO) would set up a 52-MW power plant in Tripura. The plant would be run by water and the heat emitted from the existing thermal power project, a top official said here Saturday.

The proposed combined cycle power plant to be commissioned at Ramchandranagar, 25 km from here, is the second of its kind after the Kathalguri gas-based combined cycle project in eastern Assam.

“The new power plant will be commissioned within 30 months from the starting of works next month. The electricity from the Rs.290 crore project will be supplied to different northeastern states,” NEEPCO chairman and managing director I.P. Barooah told reporters.

“The existing 84-MW natural gas-based Ramchandranagar power project, commissioned in 1997, has been discharging on an average 420 degrees Celsius heat following the burning of the gas,” he said.

“The emitted heat involving water will run additional turbines to generate electricity,” he added.

Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde will lay the foundation of NEEPCO’s new power plant Jan 2.

According to the NEEPCO chief, during monsoon a lot of water flows down to Bangladesh through the Howrah river adjacent to Ramchandranagar project. NEEPCO planned to use this water for the proposed project.

In the dry season, it will dig out ground water through deep tube-well.

Barooah said NEEPCO’s 104-MW Monarchak thermal power project at Sonamura in western Tripura would start electricity generation by March 2014.

The state-run corporation has already started its work on the Monarchak power project, for which Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will supply gas.

NEEPCO, which is under the union power ministry, was set up in April 1976. It currently has seven power stations in operation, totalling 1,130 MW of power generation, and contributes around 50 percent of the northeastern region’s installed capacity.

According to the NEEPCO CMD, northeast India has the potential to generate about 59,000 MW of hydropower. The region also has abundant resources of coal, oil and gas for thermal power generation.

“In spite of such huge potential, the region ranks lowest in the country in terms of per capita energy consumption. This has been mainly due to inhospitable climatic conditions, remote location and inaccessibility of geographical locations,” Barooah said.