Bihar adds 559 MW power as NPGC plant goes fully commercial

Bihar began getting 559 MW additional power from Wednesday after the 660MW third and final unit of the Nabinagar Power Generating Company (NPGC) at Nabinagar in Aurangabad district of the state began commercial operation on Wednesday, officials said.

Bihar began getting 559 MW additional power from Wednesday after the 660MW third and final unit of the Nabinagar Power Generating Company (NPGC) at Nabinagar in Aurangabad district of the state began commercial operation on Wednesday, officials said.

The NPGC plant at Nabinagar in Aurangabad district. (HT Photo)

The 72-hour trial operation of this unit was done in March this year. It, however, took over two months for its commercial operation as necessary approvals were awaited from the NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation), the state-run company that runs the plant.

Units 1 and 2, both of 660 MW each, of the NPGC plant had begun commercial generation on September 6, 2019, and July 22, 2021, respectively.

“The commercial operation status ensures technical compliance to statutory, safety and legal requirements,” said Vishwanath Chandan, NTPC spokesperson.

Work on unit 3 of the NPGC plant was initiated in April 2015 and was initially scheduled to be completed in May 2018. NTPC officials attributed the delay to Naxal activities in the area, public demand for revised compensation of land acquired by the government, hindrance in physical possession of the land by the NTPC from Bihar government and Covid-19 related restrictions.

The NPGC project is spread across 2,832 acres in Nabinagar of which 961 acres was government land while the state government had to acquire 1,871 acres of private land and hand it over to the NTPC.

Bihar will now get 1,677 MW, which is 84.7% share out of the 1980 MW total generation capacity of the NPGCL plant, said Chandan.

Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Sikkim are the other beneficiary states of the NPGC plant.

The NTPC’s power allocation to Bihar, which was 5361 MW against its peak load demand of 6500 MW (approx), had now gone up to 5920 MW.

“The beginning of commercial operation from the third and final unit of NPGCL completes the project, which now becomes a power station, contributing energy to the beneficiary states,” said RK Pandey, chief executive officer (CEO), NPGC.

The NTPC eastern region-1 has an installed power generation capacity of 10,510 MW across eight projects in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, while another 3720 MW capacity is under construction.