AGARTALA, Jan 9 � The second unit of Palatana power plant would be put on commercial production by mid-February with engineers from General Electrical Ltd of US coming here by January 15 next.
It will take one week to two weeks to complete pre-commissioning activities including tuning the Gas Turbine (GT) and Steam Turbine (ST) of the Unit-II, said OTPC Managing Director Satyajit Ganguly here.
Speaking to media, Ganguly said, �We are planning to complete the pre-commissioning works within eight to nine days after the works are taken up by the GE engineers. If everything goes well, Unit-II would be running commercially by mid-February�, he added.
Asserting that the Unit-I has been running in very good shape producing 93-95 per cent of Plant Load Factor (PLF), he said there would be no problem evacuating �extra� power from the plant.
�The high power transmission line from Palatanna to Azara in Guwahati has been completed and few areas need to be connected to get linked with the national power grid at Bongaigaon. Besides, alternative power evacuation system would be available even if national grid is not connected before starting of Palatana�s Unit II.� On being asked about the progress in selling power to Bangladesh, Ganguly said the OTPC has no problem in sending power to the neighbouring country but system needs to be put in place. The Centre will have to take a final call to push the plan�, he added.
Once both units are operational, the OTPC will have around 93 MW merchant power which could be sold to any party. Since per unit cost of power of Palatana plant is at �affordable price�of Rs 2.50 per unit, there would be no dearth of buyers, the OTPC MD said.
On future plans, he said the OTPC is planning to have more units at Palatana and the process is on to explore the feasibility of building more power units there. �As of now, there is a problem of natural gas with the ONGC committed to supply 2.65 MMSCMD per day to the OTPC for running both units of Palatana�, he added.
