NTPC keen to develop 2400 Mw coal-fired plant via JV

The country’s largest power producer, NTPC Ltd has evinced interest to develop the 2,400 Mw coal-based power station proposed at Kamakhyanagar in Dhenkanal district through the joint venture (JV) route.

NTPC’s chairman and managing director, Arup Roy Choudhury today called on chief minister Naveen Patnaik and presented the proposal to the latter. But it is not clear the percentage of stake NTPC would have in the JV company.

“Presently, NTPC has only given a proposal to the government. It has not indicated the amount of stake it would prefer in the JV firm,” said a senior government official in the know of the matter.

Pranab Prakash Das, state minister for energy and IT said, “NTPC has only shown interest to develop the power plant. The stakeholding and modalities will be decided at a meeting to be held soon.”

P K Jena, secretary in charge of energy department, was not immediately available for comments.

The 2,400 Mw coal fired plant is being developed by Odisha Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (OTPCL), an equal JV between two state controlled entities- Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and Odisha Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC). To accomodate NTPC in the JV, either one or both the partners have to offload some stake.

It may be noted that the state government did not have a pleasant experience in dealing with NTPC on this mega power project. The state government wanted technical and consultancy support from the maharatna company to implement the project, but failed to elicit a positive response from the power generator. NTPC was more keen to acquire stake in the project rather than offering consultancy support.

Besides NTPC, engineering giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) were also inclined to pick up stake in OTPCL’s project. Both these central PSUs were keen for only 26 per cent stake and that too with a rider that their equipment would be used in the power plant.

This belied the state government’s initial plan of offloading 74 per cent stake presumably because both its PSUs had no previous experience of building and running thermal power plants.

Total land finalised for the project taken up at a cost of Rs 17,000 crore, is 1,767.90 acres. This includes 1,074.95 acres of private land, 684.25 acres government land and 8.7 acres forest land. Alienation of government land is under process. Forest diversion proposal for 8.7 acres of land has been submitted to the principal chief conservator of forests.

The private land is to be acquired in 10 project affected villages Aluajharana (19.68 acres), Annapurnapur (447.30 acres), Bijadiha (20.81 ares), Bhagirathapur Sasana (15.2 acres), Dhobabaheli (5.89 acres), Kateni (84.24 acres), Kantapala (45.55 acres), Kusumajodi (244.04 acres), Mahulapala (24.98 acres) and Anlabereni (74.32 acres).

The power purchase agreement (PPA) for sale of entire power to be generated by the OTPCL power station has been executed with Gridco, the state owned power trading firm.

OTPCL has obtained in-principle approval from the water resources department for allocation of 80 cusecs of water from Brahmani river.

The Tentuloi coal block in Talcher coalfields with reserve of 1234 million tonne has been allocated for the power plant. Annual requirement of coal is 12.62 million tonne per annum.