Tata Power to add 600 megawatts capacity this financial year

25 June 2008

Mumbai: Private sector power generator Tata Power plans to add another 600 megawatts of capacity during the current financial year, taking its total generation capacity to 3213 megawatts.

Capacity augmentation plans including adding 100 megawatts of wind power, which will take its wind power generation capacity to 200 megawatts.

According to Tata Power managing director Prasad Menon, last year the company added capacity only in wind energy, and this year it is on track to ''take up our capacity by almost 600 megawatts."

Tata Power presently generates 2,623 megawatts, and has allocated around Rs1,000 crore for the capacity expansion. Menon said that though the capital expenditure for the current year is almost at par with the previous year, this year will see a lot of capacity coming ''on-stream''.

250 megawatts would come online at Tata Power's Trombay facility, which Menon said is running ahead of schedule in terms of capacity expansion, and will come on-stream by October 2008. The Trombay plant's current capacity is 1330 megawatts, and this will be the eighth unit of the Trombay plant. Another 120 megawatts would come online at Powerhouse No. 6 at the Tata Steel Works at Jamshedpur, which is a captive power project.

The first 45 megawatt unit of the two units planned at the Haldia Project was synchronised with the grid in April 2008, said Menon, while explaining that the second unit is scheduled for commissioning later in the year. That will take the total capacity to 120 megawatts.

Other than the above mentioned projects, Tata Power also plans to add two wind projects of 50.4 megawatts each, which are being developed at the Jamnagar district in Gujarat, and the Gadag district in Karnataka. Orders have been placed for setting up these machines, according to a company statement.