The Hindu : New plants for old

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 25, 2002

Business

Business

New plants for old

By N. N. Sachitanand

BANGALORE APRIL 24. The power scene in the country could not be more bleak. There is a substantial dearth of capacity and investment in new power plants has been scarce due to reasons well known. The IPP scheme was a non-starter. So, what is the alternative?

Powerplant Performance Improvement Ltd. (PPIL), a 50:50 joint venture promoted by Siemens AG of Germany and BHEL of India, may have the answer.

"There is 20,000 MW of installed capacity out there,'' said L. Nagarajan, Managing Director of PPIL, "locked up in aged and run-down plants which are delivering anywhere from zero to less than 50 per cent of their nameplate capacity. Much of this capacity can be brought back to a PLF (plant load factor) of 75 per cent and above through a process of rehabilitation.''

Spelling out the advantages of such renewal over greenfield power plant projects, Mr. Nagarajan pointed out that the execution could be far quicker since time-consuming political and bureaucratic clearances were not required. The investment needed was just Rs. 1 to 1.5 crores per megawatt as compared to Rs. 4 crores per megawatt for a new power plant. Moreover, the renovated plant would be more eco-friendly than it was since the latest in emission clean-up technologies can be retrofitted.

That PPIL is not making airy claims is borne by the fact that in its five years of existence it has successfully rehabilitated two moribund coal-based power plants at Durgapur and Kothagundem .

The Durgapur plant, commissioned between 1960 and 1966, had a nameplate capacity of 277 MW (two units of 70 MW, two units of 30 MW and one unit of 77 MW). When PPIL took up the renovation programme, the 30 MW units were not operational and the others were functioning at a PLF of below 20 per cent. PPIL completed the renewal task in 36 months, between 1998 and 2001. The rejuvenated plant had a capacity of 291 MW (three units of 77 MW and two units of 30 MW) and the total cost of the exercise came to only Rs. 280 crores. With justifiable pride, Mr. Nagarajan pointed out that the rehabilitated plant was now running at an average PLF of above 70 per cent.

The Kothangundem plant originally comprised of four units of 120 MW each and was commissioned between 1974 and 1978. It had at best reached a PLF of 60 per cent and was shut down in 1999. PPIL took up the rehab programme in 2000. This was a more intensive job as it involved replacement of pressure parts of Czech design to more modern BHEL design based on Combustion Engineering technology and changing the turbine internals to Siemens technology. The cost of the project is Rs. 375 crores.

One unit of Kothagundem was restarted after renovation in May 2001 and, during the last one year, has been running at a PLF of over 80 per cent. The second unit is due to roll in June.

PPIL keeps its costs down by just having a core employee strength of 35 persons and contracting out the actual project work. The company has now taken up a third project, the 25-year old coal-based Korba plant (2 x 120 MW) of the Chattisgarh Electricity Board. This plant is now not able to operate at a PLF of more than 50 per cent. PPIL expects to bring it back to full health at a cost of Rs. 135 crores within 18 months. PPIL has also bid for the rehabilitation of the Dhuaram plant in Gujarat which was commissioned back in 1965. This is an oil/gas fired power plant of 4 x 62.5 MW and 2 x 140 MW nameplate capacity.

PPIL is planning to extend its reach outside India to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Syria, Cyprus, Iran and Muscat. "We plans to do at least Rs. 500 crores worth of projects per year,'' said Nagarajan.

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