A mammoth amount of Rs 35000 crores could be saved by Tangedco and by TN government
Posted on: 06/Feb/2021 9:41:50 AM
By shutting down 3.1GW of old coal plants, halting the construction of new coal plants, and by boosting renewable energy etc, Tangedco as well as the TN government would be able to save a whopping amount of Rs 35000 crores in the next 5 years. This has been mentioned in a report by Climate Risk Horizons, a non profit agency. The title of the report is �Tangedcos Recipe for Recovery�.
It is brought out that the organisation`s participation in the UDAY or Ujwal Discount Assurance Yojana in the year 2017 has failed to revive it. A bailout package of Rs 30,230 crores for Tangedco was approved by the Centre recently. The energy experts were of the opinion that without steps taken to lower the cost of power supply or raise tariffs the dues would continue to accumulate.
Point is that cost reduction and savings opportunities available through retirement of coal power plants that are 20 years old have been identified by the report. Information is that such plants are less efficient, more pollution creating, and are now legally required to meet the 2015 air and water emission norms notified by the ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. For compliance with the air pollution norms, the deadline is 2022. It is true that till now little progress has been made in equipping the plants with FGDs and low NOx burners
The superb piece of information is that it would be possible to save a huge amount of Rs 1670 crores by retiring 3.1GW of old plants instead of incurring the capital expenditure. It must be noted that the old plants are Thoothukudi, Mettur, North Chennai and NLC 2 Stage 1 thermal power plants.
Another amount of Rs 1459 crores annually would be saved by replacing the scheduled generation from these old plants with cheaper electricity either from renewable or through purchases from open market. Now, there are many cheaper options available. This was as per the reports.
These old plants are not on track to meet the 2022 deadline for compliance with the air pollution norms. It is now mentioned that rather than incurring Rs 1600 crores or more on retrofits it would be better to retire them. This was pointed out in a press statement by the author Mr. Ashish Fernandes, Climate Risk Horizons. Incurring additional debt is difficult due to financial stresses and through higher tariffs only these costs would have to be recovered.
