Tata Power's Mundra ultra mega power project starts operation
Monday, 09 January 2012

The Tata Group firm, which currently has power generation capacity of 3,797 MW, has ambitious plans for 25,000 MW capacity by 2017. Of this, 4,000 MW will come from Mundra.
Tata Power commissioned first 800MW unit of its 4,000 mw power station at Mundra in Gujarat on 08-01-2012, becoming the country's first ultra mega power project (UMPP) to generate electricity, officials said. "Tata Power's Mundra UMPP has successfully synchronised India's first 800 MW super critical unit 1 at Mundra," the company said in a statement. The ambitious UMPP programme, in which companies like Tata Power and Reliance Power have won projects after aggressive bids. But later these private companies are asking for higher power tariff citing sharp rise in cost of imported coal and other issues, prompting and Empowered Group of Ministers to take a fresh look at fuel-related matters.
Tata Power test fired its first super critical 800-MW unit with initial generation of 60 MW, and aims to ramp up the unit in day. The company is aiming to increase generation from its proposed 4,000 MW coal fired power project entailing an investment of Rs17,000 crore subsequently.

The project at Mundra in Kutch district of Gujarat, shall have five units of 800 MW each, generating 4,000 MW of power using supercritical technology.

The first unit was slated to be ready for commissioning by September 2011.

Power Finance Corporation, the nodal agency for these UMPPs, has so far awarded four such projects. The other three projects - Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Tilaiya (Jharkhand) -have been bagged by Reliance Power.

To begin with, Tata UMPP is feeding electricity grid of Gujarat that will avail 1900 MW of power once the project is fully operational. Tata Power will get close toRs2.26 per unit, which is the levelised tariff for Mundra project.

Soon, apex state power utility Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) and Tata Power will consider coal price escalation, but the company would not be able to pass on the entire additional burden to the state government.