Chennai: The third 500 MW unit of the Vallur thermal power plant will commence commercial operation from Wednesday midnight to provide much needed relief to the state. The state will get about 358 mw as its share from the unit and it will help Tangedco to meet the growing power demand during the ensuing summer months. According to sources in National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), the unit III will be starting commercial operation from February 26.

The third unit has completed the mandatory 72 hours continuous full capacity operation between December 7 and 10 for achieving commercial operation declaration. However, the declaration of commercial operation was delayed due to breakdown of a coal conveyor and commissioning of the additional coal grab system in the Ennore port to unload coal from the ships. The three units of Vallur, which is a joint venture of the NTPC and Tangedco, together will supply 1074 MW out of its total capacity of 1,500 MW. The first and second unit is already under commercial operation since November 2012 and August 2013.

After obtaining the mandatory environmental clearance for the project, the first unit of the 2X500 MW NLC Tamil Nadu Power Limited (NTPL), a joint venture of the Tangedco and the NLC, has been test synchronised with the grid on February 18. “We successfully test synchronized the unit on February 18 and we operated the plant for an hour. It went on well. Since we synchronized the unit with oil, we are planning to go for coal firing synchronization on first week of March.

Once it is done, the unit will start supplying infirm power to the grid,” a senior official of NTPL told DC.The official added that the works are on to subsequently synchronise the unit II to the grid. “We are hopeful of synchronising the second unit by March end or in April,” the official said.