AP Genco to commission Vijayawada power project

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Genco (APGenco) is all set to commission a 500 MW plant of the Vijayawada Thermal Power Station and synchronise it with the grid thereby taking the overall project capacity to 1760 MW.

The Rs 2,100-crore power plant has been developed by AP Genco with funding from Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and a consortium of Indian banks.

Earlier, the proposal was to develop a 660 MW plant at VTPS with supercritical technology and funding from the German lending agency KFW. However, it was decided in favour of conventional 500 MW unit instead of supercritical technology.

The project was executed in partnership with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, which provided boilers and turbines and BGR Energy was the other vendor for the project. This unit will add about 3,500 million units a year or about 12 million units of power a day.

The VTPS has water supplies from the Krishna river and has tied up for coal linkage from the Mahanadi Coal Fields.

The commissioning of the project is likely to partly ease the huge demand supply mismatch faced in the State, which has shot up due to demand from the farm sector during the current rabi crop coupled with enhanced requirement during summer.

Apgenco is also in the process of developing a 182 MW Integrated Coal Gassification Combined Cycle Project. This will be first such project in the country.

Another unit of 500 MW is poised for commissioning by AP Genco later this year at Kakatiya Power near Warangal and one more 500 MW unit will come up at Kothagudem during next fiscal.