Tamil Nadu: CRH to repurpose old coal plants

Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco), depending on thermal power to meet the energy demand in peak hours, has thermal plants that contribute substantially to environmental pollution.

The State and the central thermal stations have a thermal capacity of 9,000 MW with plants of almost 4,000 MW capacity which are old and operating at half the plant load factor (PLF).

Currently, the State is facing a severe financial crunch but has the mandate to repurpose old thermal plants by 2024 according to the notification of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The Climate Risk Horizons (CRH) did a study to quantify the financial benefits of closing old thermal plants and replacing them with solar plants.

The CRH research report, ‘Financial benefits of repurposing Tamil Nadu’s old coal plants’, prepared by Gireesh Shrimali and Abhinav Jindal of Oxford University, quantified the comparative financial costs, of the decommissioning old thermal plants and reutilising the land and the thermal plant with solar plants and battery storage. The study comprises four thermal plants— Tuticorin I, II, and III (1,050 MW), North Chennai Stage I (630 MW), Mettur I and II (840 MW), and NLC II Stage I (1,470 MW).

The report discovered the State would benefit by repurposing old coal plants with clean energy, by over Rs 4,000 crore, while bringing stability to the electricity grid by converting the turbo generators of the thermal plants into synchronised condensers to enable reactive power.

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