The Meja Thermal Power Plant, Uttar Pradesh’s first supercritical power plant, will be fully operational by December. Meja Urja Nigam Pvt Ltd (MUNPL) is a 50:50 joint venture (JV) of NTPC and Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd (UPRVUNL). The JV was incorporated in 2008 to set up a 1,320-megawatt (with 2X660 MW units) coal-based Meja Thermal Power Plant at Meja, about 45 km from Prayagraj district.
Asim Kumar Samanta, CEO, MUNPL, said, “Unit -I of the supercritical plant has already been commissioned with effect from April 30, 2019. Unit-II is ready for declaration of commercial operation. It will be made operational by next month.”
Following the commercial operation of Unit-II, the plant will be fully operational. It has its own 28-km freight corridor that helps in bringing critical materials, such as coal, to plant by rail. The plant is also connected to river Ganga at Bijora village, through a network of about 30 km pipeline, to transport water for industrial purposes, he said.
He added that a SCPP has about 10% higher efficiency compared to sub-critical power plants. It uses 20% less coal compared to them. Generates less carbon emissions.
A supercritical coal plant is a coal-fired power plant with more modern designs. It differs from traditional coal power plants as the water running through it works as a supercritical fluid. This reduces the amount of heat transfer to the water which in normal cases is needed in a conventional coal plant. Therefore, less coal is used to heat the same amount of water.
“We are also carrying out various CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities in and around our plant. We have set up infrastructure for communities and planted trees” the CEO said.
A major share of 82% will be consumed within UP, 5% goes to Rajasthan, 4.8% to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), 3.6% to Punjab, 2.8% to Uttarakhand and the remaining to Chandigarh and Madhya Pradesh. Currently, the plant is operating at a plant load factor (PLF) of 80-85%.
In September 2020, MUNPL signed a Rs 942-crore loan agreement with Bank of Maharashtra for long-term project financing to part finance the capital expenditure and FGD (flue-gas desulphurisation) related to 2×660 MW thermal power plant.
When asked about the timeline fixed by the company for installing FGD technology at the plant, the CEO said it will take another one year to complete the task. FGD is a set of technologies used to remove sulphur dioxide from exhaust flue gases of fossil fuel-based power plants, and from the emissions of other sulphur oxide emitting processes such as waste incineration. In addition to curbing pollution, the FGD system in a power plant produces gypsum as a by-product that has at least 90% purity.
