OREANDA-NEWS. December 26, 2012. Tata Power's proposed modernisation of its 500MW Unit 6 at Trombay Thermal Power Station will help customers in Mumbai save on power bills. The upgrade plan includes adding the latest state-of-the-art coal firing equipment and installing pollution-control equipments to make the unit work by combining and using coal, oil and gas in any percentage. Currently, Unit 6 at Trombay operates on oil and gas.

This step is in keeping with Tata Power's 100-year track record of providing reliable, affordable and continued power supply to Mumbai and to control spiralling costs which is affecting tariffs in the city. The proposed modernisation of Unit 6 will provide multi-fold benefits to customers in Mumbai. It will improve utilisation of full capacity of 500MW at best operating efficiency, resulting in competitive, reliable and enhanced power supply availability. It will also reduce fuel costs and help lower tariffs for Mumbai customers. Tata Power will be investing around Rs1,174 crore on the modernisation. This will include installation of pollution-control equipments such as 100 percent Electro Static Precipitators (ESPs) and Flue Gas Desulfurisation (FGD) systems to maintain emissions at current controlled levels.

The use of state-of-the-art pollution control equipments will ensure that current emission levels are maintained and don’t incrementally impact the environment. Thus, this modernisation will not result in any additional pollution/emission in Chembur and its neighbouring areas. Moreover, no additional water or other resource is being sought to operate the modernised plant. S Padmanabhan, executive director, Tata Power, said, “At Tata Power, we have always been ahead of the times. We see that costs of oil and gas are rising which is why we have proposed the modernisation to reduce costs and ensure higher utilisation of capacity. Tata Power, as always, remains committed to providing clean and affordable power to its customers in Mumbai, like it has done for the past 100 years now.”

The need for modernisation has risen due to unavailability of natural gas, which has resulted in Tata Power being dependent on expensive fuels such as oil to run Unit 6. However, a shortage of low-sulphur oil from local refineries and spiralling prices of imported oil and gas have led to significant escalation in the absolute cost of power generation from Unit 6. Consequently, this 500MW Unit, which was earlier operating at a best operating PLF at 80 percent, is now operating at around 50 percent PLF for the past two years. This has necessitated modernisation, thus ensuring additional option of coal firing for optimum utilisation of the existing power generation infrastructure at best operational efficiency.

The proposed modernisation of 500MW Unit 6 at Trombay Thermal Power Station will:

Help reduce generation cost, resulting in lower tariffs for Mumbai customers

Enable full utilisation of installed 500MW capacity to help make it competitive and reliable for Mumbai

Tata Power will invest Rs1,174 crore on state-of-the-art dual fuel firing equipment, appropriate pollution-control equipments such as latest Electro Static Precipitators (ESPs) and Flue Gas Desulfurisation (FGD) to maintain emissions at current controlled levels

Sees vested interests spreading misinformation & impeding progress