Coal ministry allows transfer of Panipat power plant’s fuel linkage to new bigger plant

The union ministry of coal has approved the transfer of existing coal linkage of Panipat Thermal Power Station to a new supercritical plant, thereby facilitating scrapping of four units of 110 MW each and replacing them with new units of up to 660/800 MW, over a 4-5 year period.

The decision has been taken on the basis of recommendations of the Standing Linkage Committee (Long Term), which considered the request of the government of Haryana, an official release said.

The transfer is in accordance with the government's policy allowing automatic transfer of coal linkage in case of scrapping of old thermal plants and replacing them with new supercritical plants, to encourage better technology and production efficiency.

Under this dispensation, inefficient and uneconomical units 1 to 4 (each of capacity 110 MW) at Panipat TPS will be replaced by setting up more efficient supercritical unit of 660/800 MW capacity at the available land within the same premises by way of simultaneous phasing out units 1 to 4 over the next 4 to 5 years.

Under this policy, LoA / linkage granted to the old plant shall be automatically transferred to the new plant of nearest supercritical capacity. If the capacity of the new supercritical plant is higher than the old plant, additional coal may be accorded priority subject to the availability of coal on the best effort basis from Coal India Limited (CIL), the release said.

The only technical requirement is that a capacity equivalent to at least 50 per cent of the proposed capacity of new supercritical plant has to be retired. This policy will be applicable to pre-NCDP (New Coal Distribution Policy) plants in public sector only, which have already been granted long term linkages/ LoAs, the release added.

Automatic transfer of LoA is permissible only when the new plant is set up within the state in which the old plant was located and the old plant is actually scrapped. The old plant can continue to operate only till the commercial operation date of the new plant.