India’s first Geothermal Power plant in Chhattisgarh

     Raipur, February 16, 2013: Chhattisgarh government and NTPC today signed an MoU to set up a geothermal power plant in north region of the state, which will be the first of its kind in India.

     Director Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) Shailendra Shukla and Executive Director of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ajit Kumar signed the MoU for setting up the plant at Tattapani in Balrampur district.

     Secretary to the Chief Minister and Energy Secretary Aman Kumar Singh, Regional Executive Director NTPC S N Ganguly and top officials of the electricity companies of Chhattisgarh were also present on that occasion.

    The proposed project would be developed in a joint venture, where CREDA would act as a facilitator while the responsibility of designing, constructing, financing, operating, maintaining and running of the Project would be that of the NTPC.

     Under facilitation role CREDA would provide all required support and assistance to the developer in procuring applicable permits required from any Government instrumentality for implementation and operation of the Project and assist in finalisation and expeditious signing of power purchase agreement, the officials said.

     NTPC would be funding the entire development of Geothermal Power Plant and give first right to purchase the power to Chhattisgarh state.

     Geothermal generation refers to the harnessing or exploitation of the geothermal energy or the vast reservoir of heat energy stored in the earth.

     About 340 hot springs are located in the country.

     In India, studies for locating this renewable energy source have been undertaken by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) over the last three decades.

      Since it was a new technology, NTPC would hire an international consultant for preparing a detailed project report for this proposed plant, official sources said adding the Central PSU is expected to start project activities within two years after finalization of the DPR.

     The central PSU has already started exploratory and preparatory work on the plant. It has also started interacting with ONGC and international organizations for drilling, they said.

     Geothermal generation is relatively new and even in the United State of America less than 4,000 MW of power is generated through this renewable source of energy.

     Tattapani Geothermal field is located 95 kms from Ambikapur and is well connected. It is the most promising geothermal resource in Central India. Investigations for assessment of geothermal resource at Tattapani were carried out over three decades.

     GSI has drilled 26 bore holes in Tattapani of varying depths. In 1992-93, five shallow production wells had been drilled up to maximum depth of 600 metre and the Maximum temperature of 112.5 degree C was reported in the boreholes during well testing, officials said.

     GSI has handed over these five bore holes to CREDA for future operation & maintenance. The five production wells recorded discharge of 1800 lpm initially and currently the discharge was 1125 lpm from four bore wells.

     Geophysical investigations have suggested aquifer zones at the depth of 300 metre and around 600 metre. Drilling to the depth of more than 1500 m is essential for assessing geothermal potential of the deep reservoir.