PATIALA: Having generated electricity for 43 years to meet the power demand of Punjab, the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant Bathinda today generated its last unit at 8:39 am before being shut down forever.
While the two numbers 3 and 4 of 210 MW each had been out of operations for the last many days, all operations at units number 1 and 2 of 110 MW each were ceased on Wednesday morning after these exhausted the carpet and bunker coal left in these thermal units.
Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) of the PSPCL A Venu Parsed said, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) had laid out certain guidelines to phase out all fuel-based thermal plants that were older than 25 years. Also, the plant was not meeting the minimum environmental and emission norms that were to be followed, he said.
The board of directors (BoD) of the PSPCL had cleared the proposal to shut down the Bathinda thermal plant in a meeting held early in the month of July, this year, though the discussions on the issue were on for the last one year. Following this, the matter was put up before the cabinet sub-committee comprising of Health Minister Brahm Mohindra, Finance Minister Manpreet Badal and Minister for Higher Education Charanjit Singh Channi.
The CMD said the PSPCL was now examining a proposal to set up a 100 MW solar plant at Bathinda. This proposal would be put before the cabinet sub-committee, which would take a final call for utilization of the available infrastructure at the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant that can be put to good use.
Meanwhile, the PSPCL is yet to take a final call in regard to the 1,028 regular and 750 contractual employees who were posted at Bathinda thermal. M R Parihar, Director Generation PSPCL, said a proposal to shift these employees was under consideration and a decision would be taken after a due approval from the cabinet sub-committee.
The first unit of Bathinda thermal plant was made operational in September 1974 and second in September 1975. The unit number 3 was commission in March 1978 and the 4th unit started generating power in January 1979. The four units of Bathinda plant were constructed at a cost of Rs 115 crore, while Rs 229 crore was spent on renovation and modernisation (R&M) of unit I and II from 2004-07 and Rs 465 crore on unit III and IV from 2012-14. These units had been designed with the sub-critical technology and over the years saw a steep fall in the efficiency especially in comparison with the super-critical thermal plants which could generate power at almost half the cost.
As of today, power is now available at a cost of Rs 2.47 to Rs 2.97 a unit in the open market, while, the PSPCL had to spend Rs 3.57 to Rs 4.43 a unit, to produce power at these units making it an unviable option for the PSPCL, the sources said. Considering the merit order, these units were generally kept out of operations and would be fired up only in case the daily demand crossed 11,000 MW.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes
