Report of Indian Institute of Public Administration ... - Ministry of Power

COMMENTS
State Reports (Vol.-III)
Study on `Impact of Restructuring of SEBs’
The generation wing in Rajasthan has all along performed very well even during the
pre-restructuring period.
The PLF of Kota/Suratgarh Thermal Power Stations were comparable to that of the
top category thermal stations in the country. Time and again, these plants have won
awards at the national level. After restructuring also, this tempo has been maintained,
rather it has further improved and the generation capacity, which was 1,299.53 MW in
1999-2000, reached 2,569.35 MW in 2003-04, which means an increase of nearly 100
per cent. Further, the expansion plan, as given below, is also quite ambitious:
• Giral Lignite Thermal Power Project, Unit 1(125 MW);
• Dholpur Combined Cycle Gas Thermal Power Project (330 MW);
• Giral Lignite Thermal Power Project, Unit 2 (125 MW);
• Chhabra Thermal Power Project, Phase I (2250 MW);
• Kota Thermal Power Project, Unit 7 (195 MW); and
• Suratgarh Thermal Power Project, Unit-6 (250 MW).
Expected capacity addition in the State sector by December 2008 is 1,525 MW.
For the first time, there is a serious attempt to exploit the huge lignite deposits in
Rajasthan and a lignite thermal power project is being set up at Giral, with a capacity
of 250 MW at an investment of around Rs 1,400 crore. The biggest advantage of
lignite generation would be that the cost of power would be substantially reduced as
no transportation cost is involved in pithead stations. In Rajasthan, the cost of
transporting coal to STPS and KTPS is more than that of coal. Instead of being
attracted with the location of power plants within the State, a time has come when
different States may like to collaborate in setting up of the power plants at pithead
stations as wheeling of power is cheaper than transportation of coal over a long
distance. Expansion of KTPS and STPS would be economical since the infrastructure
already exists there.
To discourage the tendency of having State-wise power plants, leading to heavy
expenditure on transport of coal and straining the railway transport system, the NTPC
might like to prepare a shelf of projects based on pithead thermal stations. It could
invite willing States to join. Of course, tactically the State where the generating plant
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