Coal news and updates

APNRL plans 3rd 660-MW unit in Jharkhand

May 13: APRNL plans to establish an additional 660 MW (third phase) unit at Padampur village in the Saraikela-Kharsawan district of Jharkhand for which it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Jharkhand government, AML Managing Director Manoj Kumar Agarwal told ICMW

The company has also applied for a Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) clearance, along with the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report, which is under preparation. The company is also exploring raw material sources for the same

The first unit of 2x270 MW of the coal-fired thermal power plant at this location started operations in January of last year while the second 270 MW unit did so in May 2013.

APNRL procured its boiler-turbine-generator (BTG) from Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). Other packages were executed by various reputed vendors like Siemens, ABB, Nagarjuna Construction, Gammon etc.

APNRL is also establishing a railway siding at the plant at the Ganeshpur captive coal mines. The railway line is already there, which will facilitate coal transportation for the plant. The evacuation system is already in place wherein APNRL's 400-kV switchyard is connected through a 400-kV dedicated transmission line to the 400-kV Ramchandrapur sub-station of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL).

"The company will operate the power project by utilising coal from captive mines at the Ganeshpur non-coking coal block. The Ministry of Coal (MoC) has made a joint allocation of this block in Jharkhand to APNRL and Tata Steel Limited on an equal sharing basis for meeting both companies' coal requirements.

The geological reserves of the mine are expected to be 138 million tons, which are sufficient to meet the requirement of coal for the present 540-MW power project. The coals in the mines are F-grade having GCV of around 3,600 Kcal/Kg.

The mine is in advance stages of development and is expected to be operational in FY2014-15. The company has also obtained tapering coal linkages from Coal India Limited," Agarwal said.

APNRL has entered into a power purchase agreement (PPA), aggregating 435 MW, with Tata Power Trading Company and West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB), Tamil Nadu Generation & Development Corporation (TANGEDCO) and the Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB).