BHUBANESWAR:  With the Grid Corporf Odisha Limited (Gridco) projecting State’s power demand at 5,700 MW by 2020-21, the State Government claimed that availability of power will be more than the anticipated demand.Even as the power demand of Odisha is likely to soar up by 1500 MW in the next two years, it will be easily met from three power projects coming up in government sector.

Energy Minister Sushant Singh told the Assembly on Tuesday that the third and fourth units of Odisha Power Generation Corporation’s Ib Thermal Power Plant will be ready by this year end. The two units have generating capacity of 1320 MW.Similalrly, NTPC’s 2x800 MW supper thermal power project at Darlipali in Sundargarh district will be commissioned in 2019. The State will get 50 per cent power of the total capacity.

Singh said the 3x660 MW North Karnapura thermal power station of NTPC in Jharkhand is slated to be commissioned in 2020-21. Odisha will have a share of 296 MW from the power plant. The total availability of power from these three power plants will be about 1,856 MW and this will be enough to take care of the additional demand of the State, he added. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fast track the 4000 MW (5x800MW) ultra mega power plant at Bedabahal in Sundargarh district.

Keeping the future power demand of the State, the Minister said steps have been taken to set up a super critical power plant of 2400 (3x800) MW capacity at Kamakhyanagar in Dhenkanal district. Besides, the State Government has taken up renovation and up-rating of the old hydro power plants with an investment of `1,000 crore. The Government has submitted a detailed project report to the Centre for development of a solar power park for generating 1000 MW of power, he said.