Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) has inked a memorandum of understanding with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) to supply additional 250 MVA (mega volt ampere) power to Bokaro Steel Limited (BSL), a unit of SAIL.
At present DVC supplies 220 MVA power to BSL and the additional supply according the memorandum will start from 2027-28.
On behalf of DVC, member (finance) Arup Sarkar, executive director (commercial) Sanjiv Srivastava, executive director (system) D.K. Singh and executive director (finance) Joydeep Mukherjee were present at the signing of the memorandum along with executive directors and higher officials from SAIL.
“The agreement has been made keeping in mind the additional power requirement of BSL owing to its impending expansion. DVC will meet the enhanced demand from its upcoming brownfield thermal power projects being set up at different DVC establishments,” the power utility said in a statement on Monday.
SAIL has planned an expansion of its crude steel production from the existing 19.51 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to around 35.65 MTPA by 2030-31, according to a steel ministry statement. BSL’s crude steel capacity is expected to increase from 4.6 MTPA to 7.03 MTPA.
“PFR (pre-feasibility report) for the expansion of Bokaro is complete, and it has been according to principle approval by the SAIL board and a consultant has already been appointed for the preparation of the DPR (detailed project report),” Praveen Nigam, executive director, finance and accounts of SAIL, had informed analysts at the third quarter earnings call.
DVC has also lined up brownfield capacity expansion at its existing locations in Raghunathpur, Koderma and Durgapur.
The integrated power utility had achieved its highest ever cumulative generation in 2023-24 of 44314.6 MU (million units), including 44125.5 MU of thermal, 180 MU of hydel and 9.1 MU of solar power generation.
On the renewable energy side, DVC last month had signed a PPA with Solar Power Developer (SPD) Avaada Inclean towards the procurement of 300 MW solar power to be established by the SPD in India.
DVC had further said that it had become the first organisation to enter into a PPA for renewable energy bundling with its thermal power under the flexibility scheme of the Union power ministry.
The scheme of the power ministry aims to facilitate bundling of renewable energy by substituting a part of costlier thermal energy.
“Implementation of the scheme by DVC will enable the organisation to supply green power to its beneficiaries at a cheaper rate against the existing PPA and also help them in complying with the Renewal Purchase Obligation (RPO),” DVC said in a statement.
