In its bid to cut down on cost accruals, state-owned miner Coal India has embarked on an ambitious project to generate 1,000 mega watt (MW) of solar power from its catchment areas. This will save the company at least 30 per cent of its expenses on power and fuel. <\/p>\n
During 2014-15, Coal India paid Rs 2,347.28 crore bill for power consumption while during April-December 2015, another Rs 1,860.23 crore was spent. Costs under this overhead has risen by seven percent during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year in comparison to the year-ago period.<\/p>\n
Under the prevalent circumstances, once completed, this project is estimated to help save Coal India atleast Rs. 750 crore each year which will boost its bottomline.<\/p>\n
Further, as per a recent viability gap funding scheme, a one-time grant of Rs 1 crore per MW of solar power will be given for this project by the centre.<\/p>\n
“The cost of each unit of power costs between Rs 4-11. However, on an average it has been Rs 7.5 and the cost on this front is increasing every two years. From solar energy, not only we may be able to produce and use electricity at cheaper rates but it may also lessen our electricity requirement from the power companies in the future”, a senior Coal India official told Business Standard.<\/p>\n
A tender to set-up a 200 MW solar plant in the company’s catchment area in Madhya Pradesh is already underway, however, it will be opened for bids shortly.<\/p>\n
The official said the contractor (to be decided) needs to procure atleast 1,000 acres of land for this 200 MW project on its own which will eventually be passed onto the coal behemoth. Also, after winning the bid, the project, as per guidelines, needs to be executed within a 15 months timeframe.<\/p>\n
This solar project, which was conceived by the government early last year is targeted to not just reduce its operational expenses but will also help the miner use green energy.<\/p>\n
A memorandum of understanding with the Solar Energy Corporation of India has already been signed which is guiding Coal India through the process.<\/p>\n
According to the senior company official, Coal India currently needs 900 MW of power to carry on its operations.<\/p>\n
“While the project will definitely reduce our energy demands from the power distribution companies, it won’t go away entirely. Using solar energy to light up bulbs or use in appliances is one thing while conducting mining operations entirely on it is very different and complex”, he said.<\/p>\n
However, it is yet to take a call on issues like power banking, distribution of the solar output, policies related to power sourcing from distribution companies and other related process.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the project cost, previously estimated at over Rs 7,000 crore has reduced by 28.5 per cent as on December 2015 will come down further as more accurate plans are being chalked out.<\/p>\n
“For some solar units to be constructed post the tender, we want the construction and procurement company to acquire the land while in other cases we have the land available with us”, he reasoned.<\/p>\n
Presently, Coal India’s catchment areas include Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam. The solar projects are likely to come up in these areas.<\/p>\n
The Maharatna company has also undertaken a technical and commercial feasibility study based on which it will take a call on how the project will be funded.<\/p>\n
“The report is awaited next month. Based on it, we’ll decide if we will go for internal funding altogether or opt for loans”, the senior official said.<\/p>\n
Coal India has presently installed 2.2 MW solar power projects in two of its subsidiaries in Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd and Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Limited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In its bid to cut down on cost accruals, state-owned miner Coal India has embarked on an ambitious project to generate 1,000 mega watt (MW) of solar power from its catchment areas. This will save the company at least 30 per cent of its expenses on power and fuel. During 2014-15, Coal India paid Rs 2,347.28 crore bill for power consumption while during April-December 2015, another Rs 1,860.23 crore was spent. Costs under this overhead has risen by seven percent during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year in comparison to the year-ago period. Under the prevalent circumstances, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-power"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}