The Hindu : New Delhi News : India enters green coal technology era

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Monday, May 12, 2008
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India enters green coal technology era

Sujay Mehdudia

Move initiated towards putting in place an environment-friendly power plant in Vijayawada

BHEL and AP GENCO ink an agreement to set up a 125 MW power plant
Plant will use IGCC technology that BHEL had been working on for the past two decades

NEW DELHI: In a major step towards unleashing the “green and clean coal” technology in the country, India on Saturday initiated a historic move towards putting in place a “green technology” power project at Vijaywada.

Leading State-run power equipment manufacturing company Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) and AP GENCO signed an agreement to set up a 125 MW power plant at Vijaywada using Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology that BHEL had been working on for the past two decades.

According to Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh, a 6 MW pilot plant had been running at BHEL, Tiruchi, since 1983 and this is now being up scaled to commercial size. IGCC produces significantly less greenhouse gases and has operating efficiency of around 40 per cent, reducing water consumption by about 40 per cent and also has lower solid waste production.

Mr. Ramesh said IGCC also offers a technical pathway for cost-effective separation of carbon dioxide and co-production of hydrogen.

“Historic initiative”

Complimenting BHEL and APGENCO for what he termed a “truly historic initiative”, Mr. Ramesh said this project has major implications for India’s energy strategy that has to reckon seriously with international concerns on global warming arising out of expanding coal use.

“There are seven or eight IGCC plants in the 250-300 MW range in other countries like the United States but they all use low ash coal,” he added.

The Vijaywada plant will use high ash Indian coal. It will cost around Rs. 950 crore, of which roughly Rs. 420 crore will come from BHEL and the balance Rs. 530 crore from APGENCO. The project is scheduled for commissioning in mid-2011.

AP GENCO is the country’s third largest thermal power utility and is putting up the country’s first twin supercritical 800 MW units at Krishnapattnam in Nellore district for which the bids have been received and are in the final stages of evaluation.

At Vijaywada, APGENCO has 6x210 MW units and another 500 MW unit is scheduled for commissioning in October/November 2008.

It was at Vijaywada thermal power plant complex that BHEL’s 210 MW units were first proven a technological success over quarter of a century ago. Mr. Ramesh said the AP GENCO-BHEL initiative in Vijaywada should have been launched two decades ago and by now India would have been a world leader in this technology.

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