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Tatapani geothermal project in India will see drilling start soon

Tatapani geothermal project in India will see drilling start soon Hot Springs on the river bed at Tattapani, India (source: flickr/ Gopal Venkatesan, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 22 Aug 2017

India-based NTPC Ltd will see start of drilling for exploratory bore to see geothermal potential for power generation from Tatapani geothermal reservoir in Balrampur district of Chhattisgarh, India.

India-based NTPC Ltd will see start of drilling for exploratory bore well soon to establish geothermal  potential for  power generation from Tatapani geothermal reservoir in Balrampur district of Chhattisgarh, officials informed.

For resource assessment of geothermal reservoir at Tatapani, measurement of geological parameters like MT studies, DRS studies is in progress, they informed.

The Project has been taken up under aegis of Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) in association with Geological Survey of India and National Geographic Research Institute, Hyderabad.

Notably, NTPC Ltd is also looking ahead with the production of coal for about 3 millon tonnes of coal in the current financial year, a company press release informed.

After start of coal production and dispatch of coal from Western Quarry of Pakri-Barwadih coal mine in December 2016, NTPC has now started the same from Eastern Quarry of this mine, as well. Already 56,352 tonne of coal has been mined from this quarry.

NTPC, so far, has produced more than 4.6 Lakhs tonnes of coal from Pakri-Barwadih mine and successfully dispatched 58 coal rakes (2,02,480 tonne of coal) to its Barh power station.

In another major development, NTPC has already awarded Mine Developer-cum-Operator (MDO) contract for its Dulanga coal mine, located in the State of Odisha.

The company has been allocated with eight coal blocks, namely, Pakri-Barwadih, Chatti-Bariatu & Chatti-Bariatu(South), Kerandari, Dulanga, Talaipalli, Banai, Bhalumuda and Mandakini-B by Government of India. In addition, Government of India has also allocated Kudanali-Luburi coal block jointly to NTPC and the State of J&K, with NTPC’s share of coal reserves in this block being two-third.

From these 10 coal blocks, with a total estimated geological reserves of about 7.3 Billion Metric Tonnes, NTPC expects to produce about 107 Million Metric Tonnes of coal per annum.

Banhardih coal block, allocated earlier to Jharkhand Urja Utpadan Nigam Ltd, is now being assigned to Patratu Vidyut Utapadan Nigam Ltd.(PVUNL), a JV company incorporated between NTPC & Government of Jharkhand.

It may be recalled that NTPC’s efforts during second half of FY 16, as a result of rationalisation of coal linkages, reduction in imported coal consumption, enforcement of third party sampling of coal and other measures led to reduction in energy charges of coal stations by nearly 20%.

NTPC shall endeavour to  bring down the energy charges  further to help the Discoms, officials stated.

With capacity addition of 9550 MW during the current plan, NTPC is all geared up to achieve the target of 11920 MW for the 12th five year plan ending 2016-17.

NTPC commissioned Unit 3 and 4 at Koldam — 400 MW  in Himachal, Bongaigaon unit 1-250 MW in Assam, Vindhyachal unit 13 — 500 MW in Madhya Pradesh, BRBCL Nabinagar unit 1 — 250 MW in Bihar, Kanti unit 3 — 195 MW in Bihar, Mouda unit 3-660 MW in Maharashtra during the year.

Under its CSR activities, company shall continue to provide safe drinking NTPC  presently has 18 coal based, 7 gas based, 8 solar PV, one Hydro and 8 Subsidiaries/Joint Venture power stations.  Company has a capacity of over 24,000 MW under different phases of completion.

It may be recalled that NTPC’s upcoming 1,600 MW Lara Super ThermalPower Project in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh has acquired all necessary clearances from the Union Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change for the project, officials stated.

The Lara plant of NTPC would be utilising super critical technology forpower generation.

The power to be generated by upcoming project will be supplied to Chhattisgarh , Goa and Maharashtra States, officials stated.

The coal requirement for the proposed plant would be met from Talaipalli Coal Block of Mand in Raigarh Coalfields, officials stated.

On the other hand, notably, the Chhattisgarh Government is targetting 100 per cent household electrification by financial year 2017-18.

Notably, as on March 2015, Chhattisgarh had 63.6 households with electrification rate of 84.5 per cent, officials informed.

The State Government is attaching highest priority to power sector and is committed to provide full support to all utilities for ensuring quality power supply, officials informed.

Notably, Chhattisgarh is expected to add 14,140 MW of additional power generation capacity in its thermal plants between November 2015 to March 2022,  according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in its perspective transmission plan report prepared for 20 years ( 2014-34).

The objective of the plan is to present broad outlines of the requirement of additional transmission system in the Indian grid during the next two decades.

The National Electricity Plan is under preparation u/S 3(4) of the Electricity Act 2003. This Plan would inter-alia give generation capacity addition for period up to 2021-22  based on integrated resource planning requirements for the country.

In the absence of the generation addition programme for 13th Plan period, an estimate was made considering the ongoing and likely capacity addition for the conventional generation projects.

Major high capacity transmission corridors have already been planned and which are under implementation would be sufficient to meet import/export of power among various regions in the year 2021-22.

This is based on the assumptions of load growth and generation capacity addition.

Initially, the High Capacity Corridors from Chhattisgarh and Odisha were planned with reduced reliability due to uncertainties in generation addition by IPPs. The generations which were associated with these high capacity corridors are coming up in phased manner and till now no major constraint is being faced.

However, with the coming up of more generations, additional transmission strengthening may be required to meet the reliability criteria. This would be taken up with firm status of new generation projects.

The State currently also has total renewable energy potential of 4,500 MW which includes solar (grid connected and roof top), wind biomass and small hydro.

It has also planned to install solar powered pump sets for agriculture consumers which will benefit 16,000 consumers.

It may be recalled that there are significantly more number of villages which are to be electrified in Chhattisgarh using the off-grid (solar) mode than the grid-based (conventional power supply.

The State has also launched a ‘Solar Community Irrigation Project’ for drawing water extracted using solar pumps for supplying to the agricultural land of farmers across the State.

The Central Government has released Rs 12 lakh each for Raipur and Bilaspur for the Solar City project, officials informed.

The total sanctioned funds for the two cities is Rs 43 lakh each.

A total amount of Rs 67.01 crore has been sanctioned for preparation of master plans, solar city cells, promotional activities and installation of renewable energy projects and an amount of Rs 24.16 crore has been released, so far, under Solar City Programme.

Out of 7 identified solar cities in Maharashtra, an amount of Rs 7.74 crore has been sanctioned and an amount of Rs 3.04 crore has been released for 6 solar cities.

Notably, Chhattisgarh will procure additional power from renewable energy sources to the tune of approximately 700 MW by financial year 2018, officials said.

Source: Daily Pioneer