The third unit of the 4×150-mw Kameng hydropower project in Arunachal Pradesh has begun commercial operations.
NTPC, in a stock exchange filing, announced that on the successful commissioning of Unit-3 of 150 mw of the 4×150-mw Kameng project of North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd (NEEPCO, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTPC), the commercial operations date (COD) of Unit-3 has been declared as January 22, 2021. The operational capacity of the Kameng hydropower project now stands at 450 mw.
Though the expected commissioning date of Unit-4 has not been formally announced, the latest CEA report on hydropower projects (dated August 2020) had estimated that both Unit-3 and Unit-4 of the 4×150-mw Kameng hydropower project would be commissioned by December 2020. Unit-1 and Unit-2 of the project were commissioned in February 2020.
This Kameng Unit-3 development has taken NTPC Group’s commissioned capacity to 63,785 mw. NTPC Group stands for NTPC Ltd along with its subsidiaries and joint ventures.
Across two rivers
Situated in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh, the 600-mw Kameng hydropower project is a run-of-the river scheme that will utilize the flows from Bichom and Tenga Rivers (both tributaries of the River Kameng) over a gross head of 536 m available in downstream of the confluence of the River Bichom with Kameng.
The project comprises of dams – Bichom and Tenga – and water is transported through a head race tunnel into the Kimi power house for driving four vertical Francis turbines of 150-mw each. The 600-mw power plant is designed to generate 3,353 million kwh of electricity in a 90 per cent dependable year, assuming 95 per cent machine availability.
Cost escalation
The project received government clearance in December 2004 with the approved project cost at Rs.2,497 crore, and an envisaged completion time of five years. However, owing to a plethora of impediments like flash floods, major changes in primary design, law and order problems, etc, the project completion has been delayed by over a decade. In March 2015, Central Electricity Authority (CEA) placed the revised cost estimate at Rs.6,180 crore but the final completion cost of the 600-mw project is going to be much higher.
NTPC to raise funds
In an independent development, NTPC has announced that it would be raising Rs.2,500 crore through the private placement of non-convertible bonds, on January 27, 2021. These bonds will carry a coupon rate of 6.43 per cent and will have a door-to-door maturity period of ten years. Proceeds of this issue will be used for financing capital expenditure, refinancing of existing loans and other general corporate purposes, NTPC said.
Featured photograph (source: NEEPCO) shows construction work on the Tenga Dam, as of March 2018. Tenga is one of the two dams associated with the Kameng hydropower project, the other being Bichom.