MUMBAI, Oct 6: The Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) may cut back purchase of electricity from the Tata Electric Companies (TEC) and BSES following the expansion of its Chandarpur power plant.

MSEB recently enhanced the plant capacity by 500 mw to 2,340 mw. Though the grid has already begun receiving additional power from the new unit, the entire supply of 12 million units per day will be available only by December.This will be a significant increase to MSEB's present annual generation capacity of 39,390 million units.

The board at present buys around 13,262 million units from various sources including TEC, BSES, Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). Since the board has a contractual obligation with NTPC for power purchase, adjustments to the tune of 4,380 million units is likely to be made with orders from TEC and BSES.

Once power flow to the grid becomes regular, MSEB will rework its requirement and decide how much to source from its various suppliers, sources said. The reduction in purchase will make more funds available to the board for its other projects, they added.

The board has synchronised the new unit on October 1 in 44 months instead of the usual 50-55 months. The total cost of this synchronisation was around Rs 1,100 crore. A $200-million (Rs 720 crore) loan was provided by the World Bank for the purpose. The balance has been generated through the annual outlay of the board.

MSEB selected Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) for supply of boilers and turbines for the unit. The order placed was to the tune of Rs 450 crore. There were around 40 equipment and machinery suppliers for the proect. The Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station is one of the largest thermal stations in the country. It has a total of seven units, with three units of 500 mw each and four units of 210 mw each. The power station has been reporting around 73 per cent plant load factor (PLF). The power generated will be routed through the western region electricity board grid shared by Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and Madhya Pradesh.

Expansion of the Chandrapur plant was part of MSEB's capacity enhancement plan. The board is also increasing capacity of its Khaperkheda port plant by 500 mw, involving two units of 250 mw each. It has availed a loan of around Rs 400 crore from the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) for the project.It recently signed a contract with BHEL for supply of boilers and turbines for the project.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.