NTPC commissions 35 MW Floating Solar Project in Kayamkulam

State owned power producer NTPC has announced that consequent upon successful commissioning, second part capacity of 35 MW out of 92 MW Kayamkulam Floating Solar PV Project at Kayamkulam, Kerala, is declared on commercial operation w.e.f. 06:00 Hrs. of 19 May 2022.

As per the announcement, the first part capacity of 22 MW was already declared commercial operation w.e.f. 13:00 Hrs. of 31 March 2022. With this, 57 MW of the 92 MW project has been commissioned.

The fresh addition of power has taken the standalone installed and commercial capacity of NTPC to a massive 54651.68 MW. The group installed and commercial capacity of NTPC has also become 69016.68 and 68356.68 MW respectively.

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The work of the particular project in Kayamkulam was awarded to Tata Power Solar and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL). Tata Power will be installing 70 MW worth of floating solar power panels while BHEL has to construct the facility of 22 MW. As per the officials of the NTPC, the capacity installation undertaken by Tata Power Solar will be complete by June, 2022. As per the reports, the full scale power production in the floating solar power project will begin by July this year only.

The floating solar power project by NTPC is already running behind schedule. As per the initial planning of the power generator, the project was to become operational in 2021. The key impediment in the timely completion of the floating solar PV was delay in imports of solar cells from China. Once the shipments of Chinese cells resumed, the project gained speed.

The 92 MW project is constructed on lakes just on the side of Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Project (RGCCP) of NTPC. An agreement was signed years ago between NTPC and Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) to purchase power from the floating solar power plant at a rate of Rs 3.16 per unit.

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The total cost of this entire floating solar project is Rs 465 crore and employs some 2.16 lakh solar panels mounted on floaters in the lake. After Ramagundam in Telangana which has a capacity of 100 MW, this is the second largest floating solar power project of NTPC, and also for India.