The Khargone 1320 MW Ultra-Supercritical Coal Power Project is Being Constructed

The Khargone ultra-supercritical thermal power project is a 1.32GW coal-fired power station being constructed in the Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh, India. India’s state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is developing the project with an estimated investment of £1.12bn (Rs111.48bn). The project received environmental clearance in March 2015, while site preparation works were started in July 2015.

NTPC commissioned the first 660MW unit of the Khargone power plant in August 2019, which is the country’s first ultra-supercritical coal-fired unit built on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis. The second unit of similar capacity is expected to be commissioned in January 2020.

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Sterlite Power is responsible for the development of Khargone transmission project. Image courtesy of Sterlite Power. Coal for the Khargone power plant is sourced from the Pakri Barwadih coal mine in Jharkhand.

The Khargone thermal power project is being developed on a 526ha-site near Selda and Dalchi villages in the Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh. The nearest railway station is located in Sanawad, approximately 30km away from the project site, while the nearest airport is 100km away at Indore.

The Khargone thermal power plant will comprise two 660MW ultra-supercritical coal-fired units.

Each generating unit will be equipped with a single reheat and once-through pulverised coal-fired boiler with vertical water walls, and a multi-stage, tandem-compound, condensing reheat steam turbine generator supplied by L&T-MHPS, a joint-venture between L&T and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS).

Each ultra-supercritical boiler of the plant will be capable of generating steam at 600°C and 270kg/cm² pressure at the turbine end.

Each 660MW steam turbine of the plant will feature one high-pressure (HP), one intermediate-pressure (IP), and two low-pressure (LP) cylinders.

The exhaust steam from the turbine’s LP cylinders will be condensed in a dual-pressure, once-through type condenser.

The auxiliary equipment for each unit include boiler feed pumps (BFP), condensate extraction pump (CEP), a condensate polishing unit, a LP heater drain pump, heat-exchangers, as well as cooling water and vacuum pumps.

The Khargone power plant will utilise the closed-cycle cooling system with two induced draft cooling towers at the site.

Each unit of the Khargone coal-fired power plant will be equipped with wet limestone-based flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD) system to control sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions, and lower NOx burners to limit nitrogen oxide emissions.

High-efficiency electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) are being used to control fly-ash particles in the flue gas. The plant features a 275m-tall twin flue stack for wider diffusion of pollutants.

The coal handling facility of the plant features dust extraction and suppression systems, while the ash handling system includes dry ash extraction, storage, and disposal facilities.

The Khargone thermal plant is estimated to produce 2.6 million tonnes (Mt) of fly ash a year. NTPC has entered long-term pacts with cement companies for the utilisation of fly ash.

The 1,320MW thermal power project is estimated to use 6.51Mt of blended coal (70% domestic coal and 30% imported coal) a year.

The domestic coal for the plant is sourced from NTPC’s captive coal block Pakri Barwadih in Jharkhand. Pakri Barwadih is the first captive coal mine of NTPC that commenced commercial production in April 2019.

The plant was permitted to receive coal supply only by rail, as per the environment clearance for the project. The construction of the rail line connecting the plant site is, however, delayed. India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFC), therefore, gave temporary permission to NTPC in August 2019, for transporting up to 2,000t of coal a day by road, subject to a maximum of 200,000t a year.

The plant’s water requirement is estimated to be 3,800m³ an hour, which will be sourced from the Omkareshwar dam on the Narmada River.

The electricity generated by the Khargone power plant will be transmitted through a 25km-long, 400kV double circuit transmission line connecting a substation at Khandwa.

From Khandwa, it will be further transmitted to Indore and Dhule through two separate 765kV double-circuit lines.

The length of the Khandwa-Indore line will be 90km, while the Khandwa-Dhule line will be 189km-long.

The electricity output of the Khargone power plant is planned to be distributed in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Goa, Daman & Diu, and Dadar & Nagar Haveli.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was awarded a turnkey engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract worth Rs55.8bn (£602m) for the Khargone ultra-supercritical thermal power project in April 2015.

L&T-MHPS is the supplier of boilers and steam turbine generators for the project. JSW Severfield Structures (JSSL), a joint venture between JSW Steel and Severfield, was subcontracted for fabricating primary boiler structures for the plant.

L&T-Sargent & Lundy, a joint venture between L&T and the US-based consulting company Sargent & Lundy, was engaged in providing engineering and design services for the project.

Sterlite Power Grid Ventures, a power transmission company based in India, was contracted for the Khargone transmission project in August 2016.

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