Chennai: The oldest thermal power station in the state at Ennore would be permanently shut down from March 31, 2017 if the board of Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation gives its approval to the proposal.
A decision to this effect was taken by a seven-member committee, which was formed to prepare a roadmap to decommission the four-decade-old ETPS, headed by chief engineer, mechanical, thermal stations of Tangedco, in its final meeting on July 26.
After the Tangedco board gives its approval to the proposal to decommission the ETPS, the statutory bodies like Central Electricity Authority and Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission would be intimated about the decision.
The decommissioning of the ETPS was speeded up in the wake of expiry of terms of reference given by Ministry of Environment and Forest for the proposed 660 MW ETPS Replacement project on July 23 this year.
While applying for TOR to MOEF for the ETPS Replacement project, Tangedco’s director, generation had committed that the existing ETPS plant would be decommissioned by March 31, 2017.
“The validity for TOR had already expired and further extension of two year has been requested by project wing but one year extension is expected up to July 23 next year. Before that date, ETPS units have to be stopped and the environmental clearance should be obtained. Otherwise all the process to obtain EC has to be commenced afresh,” says the minutes of the committee meeting held in July last week.
The committee directed for the redeployment of the existing employees and to retain minimum staff required for evaluation and safeguarding the dismantled materials till disposal and closure of the plant office and awarding of work contracts.
It also recommended the formation of a committee headed by a director comprising chief engineers and chief financial controller to assess the value of the dismantling and disposal of materials at the existing ETPS.
The Ennore thermal plant comprises two 60 mw and three 110 mw units, which were commissioned between 1970 and 1975. Already, Tangedco had decommissioned the fifth unit of 110-mw capacity bringing down the operating capacity to 340 mw.
The 60-mw unit I and II are under outage for 215 and 780 days while the 110 mw unit IV is kept under standby due to less power demand. In a letter to Tangedco CMD, members of Confederation of All Trade Unions of ETPS demanded that the managing director allow the existing ETPS to generate power until the foundation stone is laid for the Ennore Replacement project after completing all the paper work and awarding of tender, which would take at least two to three years.
“The ETPS which began generation in 1,969 is capable of generating 130 mw if maintenance work was carried out at a small cost,” they said, expressing unhappiness over the board’s reluctance to spend little amount on maintenance for the ETPS to make use of its full generation potential when it is spending hundreds of crore rupees on yearly maintenance of newly built thermal plants.
As far as the status of the replacement power project, a senior official said, “We are in the process of floating a tender to prepare detailed project report for the project.”
The official explained that the supercritical project has very high efficiency compared to the existing units in terms of consumption of coal and emission standards.
