The financial closure or tie-up of funds for the demonstrative thermal power project with Advanced Ultra Super Critical (AUSC) technology is expected to be done by month-end, Parliament was informed on Thursday.
AUSC technology is designed to help power plants burn less coal for electricity production while reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
The sponsoring agency for the Research and Development (R&D) phase of the AUSC technology is the Department of Heavy Industries (DHI).
“A total of Rs 900 crore as grant was approved by the Government through DHI.
The projected expenditure is Rs 897 crore and the financial closure for the project is targeted by end-March, 2021,” Power Minister R K Singh said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.
According to the reply, phase-II of the AUSC project envisages setting up a full scale 800 MW Technology Demonstration Plant (TDP) to establish AUSC technology for the coal-fired thermal power plants.
The timeline envisaged for the TDP is 54 months from the date of approval of the project.
The financing options for phase-II of the AUSC project would be worked out in consultation with the stakeholder ministries/organisations, the minister informed the House.
Phase-I (R&D phase) was scheduled to conclude in September 2019, but it experienced certain delays and was completed in December 2020, he added.
In another reply, the minister said NTPC Group generated 279.81 Billion Units (BUs) power in 2020-21 (up to February 2021) vis-à-vis 264.91 BUs in the year-ago same period.
There is an increase of 14.90 BUs in power generation as compared to the same period in the last financial year.
The total capacity of wind power projects installed in the country was 38789 MW as of February 28, 2021, the minister said adding that 78 million tonnes per annum CO2 emissions would be reduced with wind projects.
In another reply, Singh said presently, 12 thermal power projects totalling 15860 MW capacity in the central sector and 16 thermal projects totalling 17490 MW capacity in the state sector are under construction in the country.
Further, he informed the House that 36 Hydro Electric Projects (above 25 MW) totalling a capacity of 12673.5 MW are under development in the country out of which 23 projects (8987.5 MW) are under active construction.
Source: PTI
