This without following the standard procedures laid down by the Central Electricity Authority.

Hyderabad: The state government is continuing its plan to establish an 800 MW supercritical thermal power plant in Ramagundam of Peddapalli district as part of a joint venture between TGGENCO and Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL). However, this does not respect the standard procedures established by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

Recently, the state government took the decision to set up an 800 MW thermal power plant in place of the 62.5 MW Ramagundam B thermal power plant, which was shut down last June due to low production issues and pollution. As per the norms, the National Department of Energy must issue a GO recommending decommissioning of the old plant and the governing body of TGGENCO must also give its approval for the decommissioning.

Once both authorities give their nod for decommissioning of the old plant, it will have to be sent to the Union power ministry for approval. Here again, it must be sent to the CEA. Once the proposal is approved by the CEA, it will remove the plant from the list of installed thermal power plants. After this, GENCO must send proposals for the construction of a new factory to the state government. Without all this, the state government has appointed a high-level committee comprising senior electrical engineers from Singareni and GENCO to construct a new power plant at Ramagundam under a joint venture.

Apart from this, GENCO was supposed to appoint an expert committee to determine the amount of revenue that would be generated from the demolition of the old Ramagundam factory and sale of the machinery. Once the committee’s report is prepared, tenders for the demolition are expected to be floated accordingly. As no decommissioning order has been received so far, no action has been taken in this direction. The state government knows very well that without demolishing the old plant, it would be difficult to build a new one in its place, but it has not taken steps to start the process of dismantling the old plant .

Initially, the state government had considered the idea of ​​setting up a plant by SCCL, but it changed its decision due to various reasons and has now decided to set up the unit as a joint venture of SCCL and GENCO. However, the government’s proposal to create the factory as a joint venture with SCCL faces opposition from unions of engineers and GENCO employees.

Recently, members of the Telangana Power Employees’ Joint Action Committee (TGPEJAC) staged a protest at all circle offices, head office and power stations, demanding that the proposed power plant at Ramagundam be exclusively owned of GENCO, instead of the proposed joint venture. with the Singareni coal mines.