Thar coal power plants struggle with transmission constraints

Despite full-page advertisements celebrating the commissioning of two 2,400-megawatt coal power plants in Thar, the government-backed electricity buyer is only able to dispatch 75% of the plants’ aggregate capacity due to transmission constraints. This means that delays in constructing the second transmission line between Thar and Matiari Converter Station have resulted in the coal power plants sitting idle, despite their efficiency as electricity producers. The Central Power Purchasing Agency-Guarantee Ltd (CPPA-G), the government-owned single buyer of electricity from independent power producers, recently sent a letter to the National Transmission and Dispatch Company Ltd (NTDC) demanding updates on the progress of the transmission line. At present, only 1,800MW of the 2,400MW Thar power plants can be evacuated due to the limited capacity of the transmission line.

With demand for electricity set to rise in the coming summer season, the current circumstances mean that full cheap-power evacuation from indigenous coal is not possible. Energy experts have estimated that producing 600MW on imported coal instead of Thar coal is costing around $30 million every month, while producing that much electricity through imported gas should cost $35m in imports.

Although the two plants in Block-1 are being dispatched continuously due to their low per-unit cost of coal, only two of the four plants in Block-2 are dispatched at any given time. This situation has resulted in abnormal voltage and frequency fluctuations for the Thar power plants on the sole dedicated transmission line, according to CCPA-G.

The under-construction transmission line, costing around Rs 12 billion and 220-kilometers long, was supposed to be complete by August 2022, but the deadline was extended to January this year, which was also missed. A senior official of NTDC estimated that work on the transmission line should be completed in two to two and a half months, despite right-of-way issues that make the process complicated and time-consuming.

To read the full article visit www.dawn.com

 

Monitoring Desk
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