The 726-MW gas-based power plant in Tripura is facing technical hiccups causing less supply to neighbouring Bangladesh, an official said here on Thursday.
“A transformer of the 726 MW-capacity Palatana power project in southern Tripura has been faulty since last week, causing less supply of power to Bangladesh,” Tripura State Electricity Corporation’s senior engineer Mahananda Debbarma told reporters.
“Currently we are supplying 120 MW of electricity to Bangladesh. On many occasions we have supplied more power than the stipulated 160 MW,” he said.
State-owned ONGC Tripura Power Company (OTPC) since 2013 has been operating the 726 MW gas-based combined-cycle power plant in southern Tripura’s Palatana, about 65 km south of Agartala.
OTPC’s Managing Director Satyajit Ganguly said the faulty transformer would be set right on Thursday and normal supply would be restored tomorrow.
“We are currently generating 550 MW in the Palatana power plant due to insufficient supply of natural gas by the ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation),” Ganguly said a news agency.
The OTPC, a joint venture company of ONGC, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd, IDFC bank and Tripura government, set up the 726-MW project at Palatana in southern Tripura in June 2013.
The OTPC’s combined cycle power plant, which is the largest in northeastern region of the country, is meeting around 35 per cent power requirement of seven northeastern states.
The Rs 10,000 crore Palatana power plant is one of the examples of cooperation between New Delhi and Dhaka, which ensured passage of heavy project equipment and turbines to Palatana in southern Tripura through Bangladesh territory.