Tenughat power station

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Tenughat power station is an operating power station of at least 420-megawatts (MW) in Lalpania, Gumia, Bokaro, Jharkhand, India with multiple units, some of which are not currently operating.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Plant name Location Coordinates (WGS 84)
Tenughat power station Lalpania, Gumia, Bokaro, Jharkhand, India 23.7276632, 85.7652325 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the power station.

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Unit-level coordinates (WGS 84):

  • Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, Unit 4: 23.7276632, 85.7652325

Project Details

Table 2: Unit-level details

Unit name Status Fuel(s) Capacity (MW) Technology Start year Retired year
Unit 1 operating coal - bituminous 210 subcritical 1996
Unit 2 operating coal - bituminous 210 subcritical 1997
Unit 3 cancelled coal - bituminous 660 supercritical
Unit 4 cancelled coal - bituminous 660 supercritical

Table 3: Unit-level ownership and operator details

Unit name Owner
Unit 1 Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Ltd [100.0%]
Unit 2 Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Ltd [100.0%]
Unit 3 Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Ltd [100.0%]
Unit 4 Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Ltd [100.0%]

Project-level coal details

  • Coal source(s): Rajbar E&D Coal Block, East Bokaro and West Bokaro Collieries
  • Permit(s): Form 1: 2017-09-22

Background

The Tenughat Thermal Power Station is situated near Tenughat Dam in the district of Bokaro, Jharkhand. The station was proposed to be 1550 MW total built in three stages. The first stage of two units was proposed in 1979: the first unit of 210MW was put under commercial operation in September 1996 and second unit of 210MW in September 1997.[1][2]

Description of expansion

According to project sponsor Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Limited's website in 2014, the project was originally envisioned to have a phase II of 3 x 210 MW coal-fired units, and a phase III of a 500 MW unit.[1]

The plans remained tentative until September 22, 2017, when the company applied for a terms of reference to expand the power station by 2 x 660MW coal units. Coal would be sourced domestically from the Rajbar E&D Coal Block.[3][4]

Site visit

In November 2017, the Ministry constituted a sub-committee to conduct a site visit and submit a report on the proposal.[5] The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) meeting minutes summarized:

"Considering the project is proposed near Tenughat Water Reservoir and representations received that the existing power plant is causing water pollution in Tenughat reservoir, EAC recommended that sub-committee comprising of shall conduct a visit the site to verify the land requirement, existing water consumption and effluent disposal mechanism, fly ash utilization pattern and disposal mechanism, proposed water consumption and its allocation, sensitive areas like water bodies, forests, protected areas, status of compliance to the directions issued by the different Statutory Authorities, etc."[6]

The site visit was conducted in December 2017, and a the site visit report was submitted to the EAC (see Annexure-A3). The EAC committee noted the "serious violations of the existing project and further found that plant is now running without CTO since last two years. CPCB also issued closure directions recently. Committee opined that the Ministry may forward the site visit report of the Sub-committee to the Govt. of Jharkhand for immediate remedial action. Further, the Committee recommended that the present proposal shall not be considered before the EAC till all the issues are addressed duly by the PP."[6]

With no known developments since December 2017, the project appeared to be deferred and was presumed cancelled.

Closure Direction

On December 16, 2022, the government's Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) for Thermal Power revisited the power station's history, including closure directions. The EAC noted that the Ministry's 2018 order issued a closure direction as the plant was running without CTO and several shortfalls were reported during a 2017 site visit and by other regulatory bodies. It added that a 2021 report highlighted major non-compliance to the Directions issued. It concluded: "The EAC was of the view that [the Integrated Regional Office (IRO)] shall conduct a fresh site visit and submit latest compliance status report on specific points raised by the EAC sub-committee and directions issued by the Ministry in ShowCause notice dated 5.3.2018."[7]

Articles and Resources

References

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of coal-fired power stations, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.