The 1,320-mw Meja thermal power plant in Prayagraj district of Uttar Pradesh is likely to be fully commissioned in December 2020. The project is being developed as a joint venture between Central and state utilities.
The Meja power plant, promoted by Meja Urja Nigam Pvt Ltd (MUNPL), has two 660-mw supercritical coal-based power units. MUNPL is an equal joint venture, formed in 2008, between NTPC and Uttar Pradesh Rajya Utpadan Nigam Ltd.
The first unit the Meja power plant was synchronized to grid on August 23, 2017 and subsequently began commercial operations on March 31, 2018.
By the original schedule, the second unit was to be operational by February 2017. This was later revised, as per a report by Central Electricity Authority (CEA), to October 2020. It may be mentioned that Unit-2 has already been synchronized to grid, on September 14, 2019.
The boiler (steam generator) set for the Meja power plant was supplied by Chennai-based BGR Energy Systems while the mandate for the turbine-generator was placed on Toshiba Corporation, Japan.
Home state Uttar Pradesh is the biggest beneficiary of the Meja power plant, having access to 82 per cent of the plant’s electricity generation. Other beneficiaries include Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh and Madhya Pradesh.
First in UP
The Meja power plant is learnt to be the first coal-fired power plant in Uttar Pradesh, equipped with supercritical technology. The use of such technology results in lower coal consumption and therefore lower emissions for the same amount of electricity generated, when compared to a conventional (subcritical) power plant.
FGD
MUNPL is also in the process of retrofitting the power plant with a flue-gas desulphurization (FGD) unit. The mandate for the same has been placed on GE Power India, in September 2018. The FGD unit will be commissioned by next year, it is learnt. MUNPL recently signed a loan agreement for Rs.942 crore, with Bank of Maharashtra, to part-finance the FGD unit.
Project Cost
A total of Rs.10,765 crore has been spent on the project up to August 2020. The final completion cost is expected to be in the region of Rs.12,176 crore.
Delay
The commissioning of Unit-2 has been adversely affected by delays in civil work of the main plant area (contractor: IVRCL) and also by land acquisition for the railway siding. Besides, the COVID-lockdown caused a near-complete stoppage of work in the first quarter of FY21.
One of the reasons affecting the overall project schedule was the delay in supply of boiler components due to a legal dispute between BGR Energy Systems and Hitachi. This dispute, which has since settled, was to do with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries taking over Hitachi Power Systems, globally, and forming a new entity Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems. Incidentally, this entity, effective September 2020, is known as Mitsubishi Power.
Featured photograph is a collage of actual plant images. Inside image shows the power plant’s “green belt”. All photographs sourced from official website of Meja Urja Nigam Pvt Ltd (www.munpl.co)
