Essar Energy Plc announced on Thursday the commissioning of the first unit of 600 MW Salaya I power project in Gujarat, being implemented at a cost of $1.03 billion (Rs 5,363 crore). The project has been synchronised with the transmission grid.
“The 600MW unit 1 is now able to deliver power to the grid and will be followed in due course by Salaya I unit 2, also of 600MW, where work is ongoing,” the company said.
The coal-fired Salaya I project, with a total 1,200MW capacity, is one of three power plants due to be fully commissioned by March 2012. The others are the 1,200MW Mahan I project and the 510MW Vadinar P2 project.
Together these three projects will add 2,910MW to the existing capacity of 1,600MW and take Essar Energy’s total installed capacity to 4,510MW. A further seven power projects are under construction which will take the total to 9,670MW by Q1 of 2014 .
“The synchronisation of unit 1, together with the others, will almost triple our power generation capacity,” said Naresh Nayyar, chief executive, Essar Energy.