CHANDIGARH: Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has forwarded   the proposal to construct three 800 MW super critical units at Ropar in the first phase in state sector to Punjab Government in December 2018  and the same  is pending with the government .

PSPCL has put in place a plan to further augment its power generation capacity of Ropar thermal plant by another 1140 mega watt ( MW ) in the next five years. It plans to construct three 800 MW power efficient supercritical thermal  units in place of existing six 210 MW units in the first phase.

The construction cost of a super critical thermal plant is around  Rs 6 crore per MW. Thus the cost of three units in first phase will be around 14400 crore. The land and railway facilities are already available at the Ropar.

Two units of 210 MW each Ropar thermal plant has already been closed after these units outlived their lives. The other four units will also be phased out in the coming years as per recommendation of central electricity authority (CEA).

The power generation cost at the super critical plants will be lesser than the existing state-owned plants at Ropar and Lehra Mohabbat which is Rs 3.82 and Rs 3.60 per unit. It may be mentioned that the cost of power at private plants at Rajpura, Talwandi Sabo and Goindwal Sahib is Rs 2.29, Rs 2.77 and Rs 2.97 per unit, respectively.

A senior PSPCL engineer said  that the  construction time of a super critical units is around 52 to 53 months and by the time first unit of 800 MW  at Ropar is available for generation after 5 years the units at Lehra Mohabattt would have also completed their lives of 25 years. The approval of three  thermal units at Ropar is required in a time bound manner so that there is no power shortage in future.

The power generation capacity in Punjab as on date is 8003 MW. The thermal capacity in state sector is 1760 MW and 3920 MW in private sector. The hydro capacity is 1161 MW and solar capacity is 859 MW.
As per CEA report all the thermal plants which have lived life of  are 25 years and older  will be replaced by  new capacities like super critical thermal plants and cleaner options such solar energy.