Government Approves Equity Investments for Two Thermal Power Plants

The Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on January 18, 2024, approved the proposal for equity investment for two thermal power plants in the country. These plants will be set up by subsidiaries of Coal India Limited. They aim to provide affordable electricity to the people at a reasonable cost.

Two thermal power plants:

The two plants to be set up by subsidiaries of Coal India Limited are:

• A 1×660 MW supercritical coal-based thermal power will be set up in Madhya Pradesh under the name of Amarkantak Thermal Electric Power Station. It will be operated as a joint venture by South-East Coal Fields Limited and Madhya Pradesh Vidyut Utpadan Company Limited.
• The second 2×800 MW supercritical thermal power station will be set up by Mahanadi Basin Power Limited in Sundergarh district of Odisha.

Permission for the construction of new thermal power plants (TPP):

• After a long time, the Central Government has approved equity investment in setting up new thermal power plants in India. Because a few years ago the Central Government was not encouraging plans to set up new thermal power plants. But recently Union Power Minister RK Singh announced that new thermal power plants of 80 thousand MW capacity will be set up in the country by the year 2030.
• In the COP-28 meeting on environmental protection held in Dubai in December 2023, India strongly opposed the suggestions of some countries to ban the installation of thermal power plants.
• India has set a target of net zero emissions by the year 2070. But the government also believes that coal-based power plants will continue to be important for its energy security.

Capacity of new thermal power plants:

• The two new thermal power plants will have a capacity of 2,260 MW. It will be set up by two subsidiaries of Coal India (CIL). The government approved the plan to invest in this.

Cost of new thermal power plants:

• The total investment approved is ₹5,607 crore. The total project cost is ₹21,547 crore.
• One plant, a 660 MW TPP, will be set up by South Eastern Coalfields (SECL) in collaboration with Madhya Pradesh Power Generation Company (MPPGCL).
• The second project, a 1,600 MW TPP, will be set up by Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) through its subsidiary Mahanadi Basin (MBPL).
• The equity investment will come from subsidiaries, which will have CIL's participation for accounting purposes.
• At present 2.41 lakh MW capacity projects are installed in the country.