Bihar gets more power

Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal has declared the commencement of commercial operation and generation of the 110-MW unit-II of Muzzafarpur thermal power station (stage I) of Kanti Bijlee Utpadan Nigam Ltd and the first 660-MW unit of NTPC’s Barh super thermal power station, both in Bihar.Muzzafarpur TPS: Situated at Kanti in Muzzafarpur district of Bihar, the namesake thermal power station belongs to Kanti Bijlee Utpadan Nigam Ltd, a subsidiary of NTPC (65 per cent), in joint venture with Bihar State Power Generation Company Ltd (35 per cent).

The 2×110 MW power station was owned by Bihar SEB. However, both the units were under shut down. In order to revive the station, the Bihar government handed over the station to a JV company formed by BSEB and NTPC. At present, 2×195 MW capacity is under construction. Bihar will get 484 MW from the project (220 MW from stage-I and 264 MW from stage-II), which is 80 per cent of the project capacity.

Barh STPS: NTPC-Barh will have a total capacity of 3,300 MW in two stages (stage-I – 3×660 MW and stage-II – 2×660 MW). Situated in Patna district of Bihar, the project is expected to benefit the state and elsewhere in the eastern region. India’s Ministry of Power has allocated 26.42 per cent power of stage-I and 50 per cent power of stage-II to the home state and the balance for allocation to West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Sikkim.

At present, NTPC has a capacity of over 3,200 MW in Bihar from Kahalgaon (2,340 MW), Muzzafarpur-I (220 MW) and Barh II (660 MW). The total capacity under construction is 6,010 MW, namely Barh-I (1,980 MW), Barh-II (660 MW – unit V), Nabinagar, a subsidiary of NTPC (1,000 MW), Muffaarpur-II, a subsidiary of NTPC (390 MW), and Nabinagar-I, a JV with Bihar SEB (1,980 MW).

The current allocation of power from NTPC to Bihar is 1,864 MW and in coming years the public sector power utility intends to provide 3,622 MW of power from its upcoming stations.