NTPC's floating solar plant to be ready by May

Hyderabad: NTPC Southern Region on Wednesday announced that the Ramagundam Floating Solar power project of 100 MW will be commissioned in May 2021.

The 100-MW solar project at Ramagundam in Peddapalli district, Telangana, is the largest floating solar power plant in India. NTPC set up the project at an investment of Rs423 crore spread across 450 acres.

"NTPC had successfully completed pilot projects of floating solar power plants at Kayamkulam of 100 kWh, Kawas (1 MW). We are now implementing large floating projects. We use reservoirs for floating solar plants near our thermal plants but require about five acres for one MW of ground solar projects," said CV Anand, Regional Executive Director, NTPC Southern Region, told the media here.

The other ongoing floating solar projects in the south are 25 MW unit at Simhadri Super thermal power plant in Andhra Pradesh and 92 MW unit at Kayamkulam in Kerala.

These floating solar projects would have been completed earlier but got delayed due to the lockdown amid Covid-19 pandemic. Around Rs 4 crore would be used for each MW in floating solar projects, Anand added.

The NTPC's Southern Region operates 9,125 MW capacity of power and will add 2,027 MW after completion of the ongoing thermal and solar projects. It currently has a total capacity of 265 MW solar PV projects. Apart from the floating solar plants, a 230 MW ground solar project will be coming up at Ettayapuram near Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu next year.

In 2016, NTPC commenced construction works on 1,600 MW (2x800 MW) Telangana Super Thermal Power Project at a cost of Rs10,598.98 crore. The unit-1 of Telangana Super Thermal Power project will be operational by January 2022 and unit-2 by March 2022. About 85 per cent of the plant power has been allocated to the Telangana State and remaining unallocated 15 per cent would also be supplied to the State following a request made by the State government.