NEEPCO commissioned NE’s biggest solar power plant

Agartala:The biggest solar power plant of North-east has been commissioned on Wednesday night by Northeast Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) at Monarchak in bordering town of Sonamura in West Tripura.
The 5 MW generating capacity solar plant has produced 2 MW power during commissioning, which was feed to Rabindra Nagar power station of Tripura State Electricity Corporation Ltd (TSECL) at the cost of Rs 7/- per unit, said Monarchak project head S R Biswas.
According to him, under Clean Development Mecha-nism (CDM) initiative NEEPCO is embarking into a plan to generate at least 1500 MW power from non-conventional source of energy especially by taping solar power and wind in Northeast by 2020. NEEPCO has invested Rs 40 Cr for the project in the additional plot of land spreading over 25 acre in upcoming 101 MW Monarchak gas based thermal power project, had been launched in 2001, he stated.
‘As many as 23,616 solar modules are being erected to tap the sunlight in the plant, which will be able to generate power in all the seasons,’ Mr Biswas said adding that NEEPCO has already prepared DPR for another 5 MW solar plant at Hujai-Lanka of Assam and 2 MW capacity windmill in northern Arunachal Pradesh. Moreover, NEEPCO has a plan to set up two more solar plants outside Northeast – 50 MW in Telengana and 100 MW in Madhya Pradesh in collaboration with local companies in the respective states.
However, power generation in 101 MW Monarchak plant has not yet been started because of adequate and proper gas supply from ONGC. On February 1 last, ONGC has charged gas into 10.7 km pipeline from Khedabari to Monarchak plant but could not ensure the clean flow of gas.
Meanwhile, ONGC Tripura Asset Manager V P Mahawar said that ONGC is completely ready to supply is 0.5 MMSCMD gas to Monarchak plant for commissioning the unit. Keeping in view the future developments and requirements of gas customers, ONGC has laid 10 inch pipeline up to Monarchak, having designed capacity to supply gas up to 1.5 MMSCMD, he added.(UNI)