POWER August 2020 - 28

TOP PLANT
Khargone: India's High
Efficiency Leap
Courtesy: NIPC
Indian power giant NTPC commissioned the second unit of the vast 1,320-MW
Khargone Super Thermal Power Project in Madhya Pradesh this March,
completing its first ultrasupercritical power plant. The project's completion is a
key step in the government's program to develop an advanced ultrasupercritical
plant using indigenous technology.
Sonal Patel
T
echnology development is embedded
in NTPC's foundation. When it
was established in 1975, the company,
then known as " National Thermal
Power Corp., " was wholly owned by
India's central government, and its key
priority was to accelerate power development
for the sprawling nation. While
nearly all its efforts over the past four
decades have been focused on building
coal power plants and related infrastructure-mainly
because India holds the
world's fourth-largest reserves of coal-
in 2005, after the government launched
an initial public offering to reduce its
stake in NTPC to 89.5%, the company
shifted gears and began diversification,
foraying into hydropower, renewables,
and even nuclear.
The government's stake in the company
today is 51%, but the company
is a " maharatna " company-a special
designation which means it has greater
autonomy from the central government
in decision-making. Furthermore, the
designation allows NTPC to incur unlimited
capital expenditures, enter into
joint ventures or strategic alliances,
and restructure or raise debt from capital
markets. This also has allowed the
company, which currently has a fleet
of 62 GW, to explore new directions
for its business. By 2032, for example,
28
1. L&T-MHPS, a joint-venture between Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power
Systems (MHPS), supplied the plant's two steam turbine generators, along with boilers with
side mill arrangements. Courtesy: L&T-MHPS
NTPC wants to vastly expand its portfolio
to 132 GW. While it expects nonfossil-fuel-based
generation will grow
into a substantial 30% of its portfolio,
coal power will still occupy a hefty 65%
share, it said.
However, in the future, the company
expects its coal fleet will be far more
efficient than its current fleet, and it is
exploring several avenues to ensure this
happens. NTPC also said it has gained
valuable experience customizing early
imported technologies to fit the unique
conditions of Indian coal, which is mostly
bituminous with relatively low moisture
but a high ash content of between 30%
and 50%. (Comparatively, coal traded
www.powermag.com
on the international market rarely exceeds
15% ash content.) In the 1990s,
for example, India established a full
domestic value chain, from design to
construction and operation, for subcritical
plants, and in recent years, it has
expanded plant sizes while reaching
supercritical temperatures.
In August 2019, it marked a new evolution
in its quest for high-efficiency lowemissions
(HELE) installations when it
commissioned the nation's first of two
660-MW ultrasupercritical (USC) units
at the Khargone Super Thermal Power
Plant in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
This March, it commissioned the second
unit at the pioneering plant.
POWER | August 2020

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POWER August 2020

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