The light-up of the boiler of the third unit of 4×270 MW Bhadradri Thermal Power Station (BTPS) at Manuguru in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district was done on Monday.
According to officials of the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation (TS-Genco), the process of boiler light-up is taken as part of commissioning the unit and synchronising it with the grid for experimental run. After undergoing a battery of tests and processes the unit would be declared ready for commercial operation. First two units of the BTPS has already been commissioned and synchronised with the grid and the plans are afoot to put them on stream for commercial operation during the next month – in January. Addition of 540 MW capacity with the help of commercial operation of the first two units is expected to come in handy to the power utilities of the State to meet the growing energy demand during the ongoing rabi season.
“We have plans to operationalise the third unit commercially by March-end so that it could be available to meet a part of the summer demand of energy. Similarly, works on the fourth unit are also in the final stages as we plan to declare it commercially operational by June-end,” a senior executive of TS-Genco stated.
In August this year, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has permitted the TS-Genco which is establishing the BTPS to transport coal from Manuguru opencast mines of Singareni Collieries to the project site of BTPS by road for three years or till the completion of the new link railway line, whichever is earlier. Official sources stated that construction of the new link line running for 20.25 km from Manuguru railway station to BTPS plant site by the South Central Railway would take least two to two-and-a-half years.
“We hope to complete the new rail line by Nov-end 2021, land acquisition for which was delayed by the pre-occupation of the revenue department officials with successive elections to Assembly and LS during the last quarter of 2018 and first quarter of 2019,” the official explained.
The BTPS requires a total quantity of 13,000 tonnes coal day and it would be transported in 655 trucks (1,310 to and from, together) covering a distance of 17 km from the coal handling plant at Manuguru to the power plant site.
