The power situation in Tamil Nadu looked up with the additional 600 MW fifth unit of the Mettur Thermal Power Station (MTPS) generating 480 MW during a trial run. This partly offset the current electricity deficit in the state of more than 4,000 MW. The trial run follows a review meeting chaired by chief minister J Jayalalithaa and directive issued by her to expedite work on three power projects.
A top official from MTPS said that the new unit would be commissioned “most probably either in the last week of March or in the first week of April”.The unit which should have been commissioned in September last, is in addition to the existing 4 X 210 MW units of MTPS. The official said the furnace unit of MTPS would be ‘lighted’ on a trial basis using oil to make it run smoothly. The new thermal unit station has coal stock of more than two lakh tonnes.The new unit commissioned under Stage III works of MTPS has been built at a cost of about Rs.3,550 crore.
The environment ministry has recently cleared the North Chennai Thermal Power Extension Project (2 x 600 MW) as a special case to help Tamil Nadu tide over the power crisis. Chief minister Jayalalithaa has also directed that work be speeded up on the Vallur Thermal Power Project, a joint venture of TNEB and the NTPC to generate 3 x 500 MW.
The first unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project is expected to attain criticality soon. Minister of state in the Prime Minister’s office V Narayanasamy has said that power generation would commence with the commissioning of the first of the 2 x 1,000 MW units from December 15.
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