Sasan Ultra Mega Power Plant

 

Sasan Ultra Mega Power Plant, Madhya Pradesh

The Sasan Ultra Mega power plant, located in the Sasan village of the Singrauli district, Madhya Pradesh, has an installed capacity of 3,960MW. Owned and operated by Reliance Power, it is one of India’s biggest power plants integrated with a coal mine.

 It is presently the 4th largest electricity generation power plant in India after NTPC Vindhyachal (4,760 MW), Mundra Thermal Power (4,620 MW) and Mundra UMPP (4,000 MW). The total project value of Sasan UMPP is http://http://₹25,186 crores (₹251.86 Billion). 

Coal Mines

The Sasan UMPP is a pit-head power project, which has been allocated 3 captive coal mine blocks: Moher, Moher-Amlohri extension and Chhatrasal in Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh. Reserves are in excess of 750 million tonnes. Together, the mines produce 20 million tonnes of coal each year, making it the largest integrated power plant and coal mines project in India.

Reliance Power states that the power station will be located "approximately 25 km from three captive pithead coalmines." The mines are Moher, Moher-Amlohri extention and Chhattrasal. The company stated in a media release in 2007 that power station is expected to consume over 15 million tonnes per annum of coal "making it the single largest captive coal mining operation by private sector in India across any industry.

The coal for the proposed plants is slated to come from the Moher coal mine, the Moher-Amlori Extension coal mine and the Chhatrasal coal mine. While Reliance described the coal mines as captive, in 2009 the prospect that coal from these mines could be dispatched to other markets became the subject of legal action.

In May 2015 the coal ministry de-allocated Chhatrasal coal mine, and said excess coal from the Moher coal mine and the Moher-Amlori Extension coal mine could not be used to power Reliance's nearby Chitrangi Power Project. The coal ministry said it is planning to ask Reliance Power to submit a revised mining plan for the two Moher coal blocks.

Achievements

The plant achieved the highest Plant Load Factor (PLF) of 90.84% in 2015-16 in the first year of its full operation.

The Plant achieved 94.78% PLF in 2018-19, the highest among thermal power plants in India.

The Plant achieved 95.85% PLF in 2019-20, the highest among thermal power plants in India.

Opposition

It has been reported that the "Baiga tribals in and around the Moher forests in Singrauli have been living in the project areas. These tribal people do not have any legal documents or land records to prove their customary rights over the land. This has deprived them of a right to rehabilitation and compensation. Villagers are not sure if they can get any compensation after the land was acquired for the Sasan project.