News Analysis India

Tag: Power Plant

  • India to start building 10 ‘fleet mode’ nuclear power plants from 2023

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: With the first pour of concrete for a 700 MW atomic power plant in Karnataka’s Kaiga scheduled in 2023, India is set to put in motion construction activities for 10 ‘fleet mode’ nuclear reactors over the next three years.

    The first pour of concrete (FPC) signals the beginning of construction of nuclear power reactors from the pre-project stage which includes excavation activities at the project site.

    “The FPC of Kaiga units 5&6 is expected in 2023; FPC of Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Praiyonjan units 3 & 4 and Mahi Banswara Rajasthan Atomic Power Projects units 1 to 4 is expected in 2024; and that of Chutka Madhya Pradesh Atomic Power Project units 1 & 2 in 2025,” officials of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) told the Parliamentary panel on science and technology.

    The Centre had approved construction of 10 indigenously developed pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) of 700 MW each in June 2017. The ten PHWRs will be built at a cost of Rs 1.05 lakh crore. It was for the first time that the government had approved building 10 nuclear power reactors in one go with an aim to reduce costs and speed up construction time.

    Bulk procurement was underway for the fleet mode projects with purchase orders placed for forgings for steam generators, SS 304L lattice tubes and plates for end shields, pressuriser forgings, bleed condensers forgings, incoloy-800 tubes for 40 steam generators, reactor headers, DAE officials said.

    Engineering, procurement and construction package for turbine island has been awarded for Gorakhpur units three and four and Kaiga units five and six, they added. Under the fleet mode, a nuclear power plant is expected to be built over a period of five years from the first pour of concrete.

    Currently, India operates 22 reactors with a total capacity of 6780 MW in operation. One 700 MW reactor at Kakrapar in Gujarat was connected to the grid on January 10 last year, but it is yet to start commercial operations.

    The PHWRs, which use natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as moderator, have emerged as the mainstay of India’s nuclear power programme. India’s first pair of PHWRs of 220 MW each were set up at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan in the 1960s with Canadian support.

    The second reactor had to be built with significant domestic components as Canada withdrew support following India’s peaceful nuclear tests in 1974. As many as 14 PHWRS of 220 MW each with standardised design and improved safety measures were built by India over the years.

    Indian engineers further improvised the design to increase the power generation capacity to 540 MWe, and two such reactors were made operational at Tarapur in Maharashtra. Further optimisations were carried out to upgrade the capacity to 700 MWe.

  • In the Congress ruled Madhya Pradesh, after Urea crisis, now the public is hit by power shortage

    It is rightly said where the Congress party put its step forward the problem starts emerging. In fact the name of the Congress party is Problem. The same is being witnessed in the states of MadhyaPradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan which has recently gone under the rule of Congress

    Back to back, one after the other the people of state are facing the heat of various false promises made by the Congress Government

    Already struggling with the Urea crisis, the state under the leadership of senior Congress leader Kamal Nath is now faced with another crisis. Now the state is witnessing a potential power shortage due to diminishing coal stocks in major power plants.

    Four prominent power plants in the state are left with very little stocks of coal that would only last one to two days’ and any delay in its supply could lead to a power shortage, the sources claimed.

    Although officers from the Department of Energy have said that the situation is not out of control yet as power plants are being supplied coal stocks in excess of the daily requirements and the department is also busy enhancing the coal supplies but the situation seems to be different and telling a different story

    Four major power plants, including Singaji, Chachai (Amarkantak), Birsinghpur and Satpura, require around 60,000 metric tonnes of coal daily, and the problem arises from the fact that coal supplies are almost in the same range due to which the plants are not able to compile additional stocks.

    Whatever quantity of coal these plants require they get from the central pool, but the central pool facilities have minimal stocks. So if the supplies are ever hindered for a day or two, the power generation could face a serious impact.

    Power plant at Amarkantak has 49,580 metric tonne coal, Birsinghpur plant has 24, 940 metric tonne, Singaji plant has 30,855 tonne and the Satpura thermal power plant has 22,706 metric tonne left in stock. In all, these thermal power plants require 60,000 metric tonne coal per day to stay afloat.

    Various public sector companies are supplying 15 to 20 racks of coal on a daily basis but there are probable chances of state getting into power crisis.

    Earlier also during the Congress’ government with the tenure of former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh MP had plunged into a deep power crisis after most power plants were pocketed by Chhattisgarh which carved out of the central state in 2000. With the season of Rabi, a winter crop, at its peak, the demand for power is now around 13,000 MW in the state.

    The Congress had always attacked Prime Minister Modi on issue of farmer distress and made it a major political and electoral issue. But now when Congress has got power, the farmers of those states are struggling more. The same urea which was easily available in the BJP era at a nominal price is scarce in the state and being sold in black. At the peak time farmers are also facing power crisis. This shows the hypocrisy of Congress Government which only thinks about coming into power by hook and crook and later exploit the people