Krishnapatnam plant getting ready for installation of 3rd unit

Nellore: AP GENCO's Super Critical Power Station at Krishnapatnam is getting ready for its third unit and the trial operations are now going on. Officials say there have been some technical issues for announcing Commercial Date of Operation (COD) and are working rigorously to resolve them.

It may be recalled that the plant has two units with a capacity of 800 MW each that have already been installed and are generating power.

The 1,600 MW power unit has been set up at Nelaturu in Muthukur mandal through a special purpose vehicle (SPV).

It started production in 2015 with an initial capacity of 800 MW and then another 800-MW unit was added in February 2016 upgrading it as a supercritical plant. The GENCO also laid the foundation for another 800-MW unit.

The AP Genco has constructed the plant in about 1,170 acres and the first unit of this power plant started operations in March 2014. It is a unique project with the first 800 MW supercritical unit in the State and the first amongst public sector utilities. Another unit was added in 2015 which started power generation in 2016.

The German bank had provided a loan of Rs 1,871 crore for the project and Rs 4,786 crore was financed by the Power Finance Corporation Limited.

The total cost of the project was Rs 12,300 crore and 17,764 tonnes of coal per day has been estimated to be utilised for the generation of power from the two units, officials said.

The third unit has been proposed to be completed with around Rs 4,800 crore. The plant officials have completed some works such as construction of a boiler, chimney and water withdrawal facility from the nearby sea and coal plant etc.

Officials also conducted steam trap testing to see whether automatic valves designed to discharge condensate without losing steam, to test the operating condition of a steam trap to determine if it is working properly, including visual observation, measuring temperature, measuring sound/vibrations or ultrasound, etc.

BHEL has completed construction of the boiler, turbine, generator, and Tata has finished cooling water system, chimney, and powerhouse for the third unit. Officials say Covid situation also affected project works and so they were delayed.

Earlier, the plant was using seawater from the Bay of Bengal for boilers and now they are desalinating the water and using it for the plant adopting the latest technology for the coal/ash handling system. Fresh water is beneficial for reducing pollution and improving the quality of coal. Experts in the plants say water is used to extract, wash, and transport the coal; to cool the steam used to make electricity in the power plant and also to control pollution from the plant.

"The unit has linkage with coal mines located in Telcher of Odisha and will be shifted to the plant using the conveyor belt from the Krishnapatnam Port. We are using the latest technology for quality power generation," said an official from the plant.