The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) on Saturday announced a major achievement at its North Karanpura Super Thermal Power Project (3x660MW), when it performed the main boiler acid cleaning of Unit-I in a record time frame.
Project head Asim Kumar Goswami said that they have achieved all designated parameters as per schedule. With this compulsory process being completed, chances are high that the first unit of the project will get commissioned within the next three months.
The plant, situated in Chatra's industrial town Tandwa, is supposed to supply power to several states including Bengal.
According to sources, the process is a mandatory requirement at a power plant. They said that in the older method, the process is initiated only after the boiler is lit up, and that too, is done after it reaches a certain temperature. However, in this process, the boiler needs to be shut down for 20 days, during which all operations related to power generation are halted.
The NTPC’s idea of cleaning the main boiler before commissioning means that it does not need to be cleaned after it gets a commission.
Officers termed this achievement big, and expressed their happiness.They said that with this mandatory process achieved, they believe that its first 660MW unit will hopefully be commissioned in next three months.
Power plant being constructed at Tandwa in Jharkhand's Chatra district Picture by Vishvendu Jaipuriar
Speaking to The Telegraph Online, Goswami told that the unique part about this achievement is that the required temperature of 75 to 80 degrees Celsius has been achieved by an Aux Boiler for the first time of BHEL NTPC thermal units. He said the acid cleaning process started on November 9 which concluded on Saturday without any error.
Once the first unit gets commissioned, the second process would need another six months to start, officers said. Third unit will start six months after the commissioning of the second one, they added.
The Covid-19 pandemic has delayed the commissioning of the first unit coming up in Tandwa. The Rs14,300crore project will cater to the power needs of Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal once fully operational.
The project was originally proposed in 1996 but got delayed because Coal India Limited objected to the location of the power plant as it was coming up on a site having 6 billion tonnes of coal, and demanded a relocation. The work restarted much later in 2014.