Coal news and updates

CESC shuts down New Cossipore TPS

January 1: CESC Ltd, the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group flagship, has shut down its 64-year old New Cossipore power generating station located in northern part of Kolkata.

“The New Cossipore unit has been shut down recently. Generation from the old unit is no longer required after the commissioning of the Haldia unit in November,” a company source told ICMW.

Built in 1949, the New Cossipore plant had an installed capacity of 100 MW but produced hardly 30-40 MW only during peak demand.

“The generation cost at the plant was as high as Rs 10 per unit and fuel (coal) consumption was uneconomic due to old technology and lack of refurbishment,” the source said.

The shut-down, however, will not affect generation as the new plant at Haldia (2x300 MW) has started generation and will be fully operational this year (2015). Also, the national power grid connectivity has eased the process of meeting peak demand, he said.

Earlier, CESC had closed down the Mulajore plant in 2004. Other old plants, namely Titagarh and Southern units, however, still continue to produce power.

Currently, CESC has total installed capacity of 1,725 MW from its four plants. It also has four new plants in the pipeline with a combined planned capacity of 5,240 MW.