Tangedco to decommission Ennore thermal power station

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation-owned coal-fired thermal power station at Ennore will cease to generate from March 31, 2017 with the utility’s chairman and managing director approving the “unanimous” recommendation of the seven-member committee formed to prepare roadmap for decommissioning the plant.

The 45-year-old 450 mw Ennore Thermal Power Station would be replaced by a 660 mw supercritical ETPS Replacement Project for which paper works have already began.

The CMD  of Tangedco on August 11 has approved the committee’s recommendation to decommission ETPS and to intimate Central Electricity Authority and other statutory bodies to exclude 450 mw from the installed generation capacity of Tangedco.

After obtaining formal approval for the decommissioning of the ETPS, action would be initiated on redeployment of personnel and dismantling and disposal of assets and materials at the existing ETPS plants said an internal communication of Tangedco.

The work on the ETPS decommissioning was speeded up in the wake of expiry of terms of reference given by Ministry of Environment and Forest for ETPS Replacement 660 mw project on July 23 this year.

While applying for TOR to MOEF for the ETPS Replacement project, Tangedco’s director-generation had committed that the existing ETPS plant would be decommissioned by  March 31, 2017.

“The validity for TOR had already expired and further extension of two year has been requested by project wing but one year extension is expected up to July 23 next year. Before that date, ETPS units have to be stopped and the environmental clearance should be obtained. Otherwise all the process to obtain EC has to be commenced afresh,” said the minutes of the committee meeting held in July last week.

The Ennore thermal plant comprises two 60 mw and three 110 mw units, which were commissioned between 1970 and 1975. Already, Tangedco had decommissioned fifth unit of 110-mw capacity bringing down the operating capacity to 340 mw.

The 60-mw unit I and II are under outage for 269 and 834 days while the 110 mw capacity unit IV is kept under standby for past 63 days due to less power demand.