POWER October 2014 - 28

TOP PLANTS
Mundra Thermal Power Plant,
Mundra, Gujarat, India
Owner/operator: Adani Power Ltd.
Courtesy: Adani Power Ltd.
The nine-unit Mundra thermal power plant is one of the largest coal-fired plants in
the world, but it takes up minimal space and uses both fuel and water efficiently.
Sarosh Bana
I
n the October 2013 issue of POWER, Tata
Power's 4-GW Mundra ultra-mega power
plant was recognized with a Top Plant
award in the coal category. This year POWER
recognizes another behemoth in the region-
and not only for its scale.
India's Power Sector
As of June 30, 2014, India's installed power
capacity was roughly 249.5 GW. As much as
59.51% of this total-about 148.5 GW-was
coal-based thermal power.
Based in Ahmedabad, in the state of Gujarat,
Adani Power added 2,640 MW, or 15.5%
of India's total power capacity additions of
about 17,000 MW, in the 2013-14 fiscal year.
Every addition of electrical power is crucial
in a country where roughly one-quarter of its
more than 1.2 billion people have no access
to electricity, according to the World Bank.
Adani Power operates coal-fired power
plants at three locations: the 3,300-MW
Tiroda plant, the 1,320-MW Kawai plant,
and the 4,620-MW Mundra Thermal Power
Plant (TPP). Three more are in development:
Chhindwara (1,320 MW), Dahej (2,640
MW), and Bhadreshwar (3,300 MW).
But the Mundra TPP, developed to provide
power for the Adani Ports and Special
Economic Zone in Mundra, is the company's
flagship. Built at a cost of $4.6 billion ($3.7
billion of it debt and $939 million equity), its
four 330-MW subcritical units and five 660MW
supercritical units produce a stagger28
ing
4,620 MW, making it the world's largest
single-location private sector thermal power
station. The plant has an 85% load factor (the
national average is 74%).
Adani Power CEO Vneet Jaain explained
that all generation is supplied through power
purchase agreements: 46% to the state grid
and 54% to the national grid.
Design and Development
" Our Mundra plant sets global benchmarks for
power producers in terms of size, efficiency
and sustainability, " said Jaain. " Despite its
enormous capacity, the facility stands unique
in the world when compared with area per
megawatt, located as it is on a very optimized
layout of 734 acres, alongside auxiliaries like
cooling towers, a 47-mld [million liters a day]
desalination plant and the flue gas desulfurization
[FGD] plant. " India's Central Electricity
Authority allows for 0.5 acre per megawatt,
which for the Mundra TPP could have meant
2,310 acres-over three times its actual area.
The plant was readied in record time for
any Indian power developer. Groundbreaking
was in December 2006, and there were just 34
months between synchronization to the grid of
the 330-MW Unit 1 on May 23, 2009, and of
the 660-MW Unit 9 on March 5, 2012.
The plant was also the first to introduce
the 660-MW supercritical power technology
into India, with the commissioning of Unit
5 in December 2010, following installation
of the four 330-MW units. The 330-MW
www.powermag.com
Unit 1 was the first such subcritical boiler at
a power plant in India. The 660-MW boilers
were supplied by Harbin Boiler Co. and
the turbine generators by Dongfang Machinery
Co.; the 330-MW boilers were provided
by Babcock & Wilcox Beijing Co. Ltd. and
the turbine generators by Beijing Beizhong
Steam Generator.
The supercritical boiler is of a oncethrough
type, unlike the subcritical boiler,
where water and steam remain in saturated
condition in the boiler drum and water is recirculated
for generation of steam. The 600MW
supercritical turbine has three cylinders,
including a combined high-pressure and intermediate
pressure section, and is configured
as tandem compound with four-flow exhaust
to the condenser.
" As supercritical power plants operate at
higher temperature and pressure, they achieve
higher efficiencies (above 40%) than conventional
subcritical power plants (32%), " said
Singh. " The use of supercritical technology
also leads to significant CO2 emission reductions,
of above 20%. "
Transmission Constraints
On Dec. 31, 2013, the plant set an Indian
power sector record by surpassing its 4,620MW
nameplate capacity to generate 4,644
MW. To enable that record and to circumvent
the government's infirm transmission
network, Adani Power had two power lines
constructed: the 433-kilometer (km) 400POWER
| October 2014
http://www.powermag.com
POWER October 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER October 2014
