CESC to commission its 600 MW Haldia plant in December

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will inaugurate the plant on November 26.

Power The RP-Sanjiv Goenka group flagship power company, Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation, is set to commission a Rs 4,600-crore (Rs 46-billion) thermal power plant at Haldia in West Bengal shortly.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will inaugurate the plant on November 26.

The 600-Mw (two units of 300 Mw) plant, at Baneswar Chawak (Haldia) in East Medinipur district, is set up through Haldia Energy Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CESC.

“The first phase of the project, which constitutes 300 Mw power will be commissioned in the first week of December and the next 300 Mw would be on the grid by February,” said CESC chairman Sanjiv Goenka.

Coal requirement for the plant would be met through Coal India.

“With the commissioning of the Haldia plant, the total capacity of the Kolkata-based power utility would go up to 2,500 Mw,” Goenka added. Recently, CESC commissioned a 600 Mw thermal power plant at Chandrapur in Maharashtra.

At the beginning of the year, CESC had four power plants, all in West Bengal, cumulatively producing 1,225 Mw.

China-based Shanghai Electric Corp has supplied the boiler turbine-generator for the plant built over 317 acres of land. Punj Lloyd was the engineering procurement and construction contractor.

Power from the Haldia plant would be sold to CESC's own consumers in Kolkata and its suburban regions at administered tariff.

Power evacuation will be done through 86-km transmission line with 249 transmission towers from plant to Power Grid Corporation India substation at Subhasgram.

CESC is the sole distributor of electricity within an area of 567 sq km of Kolkata as well as parts of Howrah, Hooghly, North and South 24 Parganas.

It serves 2.5 million consumers including domestic, industrial and commercial users. Maximum demand in the CESC licensed area is 2,042 Mw.

POWER PLAY

CESC Haldia plant