Government to shut old power plants to replace them with new ones
Union Government is planning to shut down 100 old power plants with capacities ranging from 60 to 220 MW and replace them with 30 critical units ranging between 660MW to 800MW. The old units are more than 25 years old. This will require an estimated expense of Rs. 70, 000 Crore. Since the new units will use the same land, it will also save Rs. 40,000 Crore investment on Land Acquisition and other infrastructure cost such as rail linkages, water linkages, ash ponds, power evacuation lines etc.
The old units have a cumulative power generation capacity of 11000 Crore; they will be replaced with new units with combined capacity of 20000MW. The Ministry of coal has already issued guidelines for auto-transfer of coal linkages to new critical units.
We note here that government has plans to add new generation capacity of 86400 MW in the 13th plan period. Since land acquisition is a major issue; the government has been exploring options to use existing land. This makes perfect sense because it will boost thermal efficiency and power output. There is also a need to develop technology to rationalized use of coal.
