NTPC to commission 250 Mw Bongaigaon thermal power unit in Assam by June

The country’s largest power producer, NTPC Ltd, plans to commission the 250 Mw Bongaigaon thermal power project (TPP) in Kokrajhar in Assam in the first quarter of the ensuing financial year.

Bongaigaon is the first NTPC project in the north-eastern region of 750 Mw capacity (3x250 Mw). Of the total capacity, 500 MW (2x250 Mw) is already generating power.

“The commissioning of one unit of 250 Mw is set to start. The unit will be synchronised by May-June this year and power will be supplied to the north-eastern states,” said Dipankar Bose, group general manager, Bongaigaon TPP, NTPC.

With the commissioning of the last unit (1x250 Mw), the power plant will achieve the full capacity of 750 Mw. The PSU will source the coal from the Eastern Coalfields Limited, North East Coalfields and Central Coalfields Limited.

For the first time, flue gas desulphurisation technology will be used in the plant to control emission of sulphur dioxide.

For running the two units of 250 Mw each, NTPC requires about 5,200 tonnes of coal per day. With the new unit coming in the requirement of the coal wull go up to 7,000-7,500 tonnes per day.

The Bongaigaon project comes under the Eastern Region-II, which looks after the stations and projects in Odisha and northeastern part of the country.

Similarly, in Odisha, NTPC Ltd has firmed up plans to start commercial operations at its Rs 125 billion proposed 1600 Mw (2x800) supercritical coal-based power plant at Darlipalli.

One unit of 800 Mw will come by December in the next financial year but the commercial operations are slated to kick-off by March 2019. The second unit of similar capacity is projected to start by September 2019. Odisha will get 50 per cent power of the total capacity.

The power major will source coal from its Dulanga coal mine to meet the raw material requirements. For additional requirements, it will source from Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL).

The project will consume eight million tonnes of coal annually. The beneficiary states of the project are Odisha (800 Mw), West Bengal (423 Mw), Jharkhand (142 Mw), Sikkim (21 Mw) and Bihar (215 Mw).

NTPC Limited