Jhajjar (Mahatma Gandhi) power station

The Jhajjar power station is a 1320 megawatt coal-fired power station at Jhajjar district, Haryana, India. The project is operated by CLP India, a subsidiary of CLP.

Location
The plant is located approximately 25 km west-southwest of Jhajjar, between the villages of Khanpur Kalan and Jhamri in Matanhel tehsil, Jhajjar district, Haryana, India. Based on maps supplied in the EIA, it appears to be 1-2 km west of the site of the Indira Gandhi Super Thermal Power Project.

Background
The plant is located in the district of Jhajjar, Haryana state, India. "Eighty-five per cent of it capacity is contracted for supply to the Haryana DISCOMs (UHBVNL and DHBVNL) and the remaining available capacity will be sold outside the state of Haryana to Tata Power," CLP states. The plant is intended to use domestic coal.

The plant consists of two 660 MW units with a total capacity of 1320 MW. Both use supercritical technology.

Unit 1 of the project (660 MW) began operating on January 11, 2012. Unit 2 (660 MW) was commissioned on April 11, 2012.

Coal supply problems
According to a June 2012 report in Bloomberg Businessweek, the plant was completed in April 2012 but is "dead cold" due to lack of coal supplies.

A March 2012 article in the Indian Express described coal shortages at the Mahatma Gandhi Thermal Power Project and the adjacent Indira Gandhi Super Thermal Power Project:
 * Jharli, a 35-km, partially bone-rattling ride from the heart of dusty Jhajjar town, looks like just another sleepy outpost in Haryana’s eastern periphery. With a significant difference — it is the site of two mega power projects, pitched right opposite each other on a narrow state road, that are in various stages of commissioning. Both are big, based on domestic coal, but facing an equally massive coal shortage. The 1,500 MW Indira Gandhi Super Thermal Power Project is being executed by joint venture firm Aravali Power, floated by NTPC Ltd, Haryana and Delhi. It was to get coal linkage of 6.94 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) allocated from Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd, a Coal India Ltd subsidiary. “We are getting about half that amount,” said an NTPC official. “Of that, half of what comes in is just sand, stones and boulders. The irony is that the consignment, much of it just waste, is transported over 1,500 km, for which the consumer will be billed.” Bang opposite, the 1,320 MW Mahatma Gandhi Thermal Power Project, which was bagged through competitive bidding by CLP Power India in July 2008, was promised coal linkage of 5.21 mtpa from CCL, another Coal India arm. Power from this project was to be made available from January 2012. Till a couple of weeks back, the developers were still in the process of aggregating coal for testing, to maintain at least seven days’ continuous operations.

Environmental Assessment Report
The Environmental Assessment Report can be found here.

Air emissions
Each generating unit has a limestone-based flue gas desulfurization (FGD) unit.

Project Details
Sponsor: CLP India Location: Khanpur in Jhajjar district, Haryana, India Coordinates: 28.488143, 76.352534 Status: Completed in April 2012 but not operating due to lack of coal Nameplate capacity: 1320 MW Type: Supercritical Coal Type: Coal Source: North Karanpura coal fields, operated by Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) Estimated annual CO2: Source of financing: Asian Development Bank

Related SourceWatch articles

 * India and coal
 * Proposed coal plants in India

External resources

 * Environmental Assessment Report: Jhajjar Thermal Power Project, Asia Development Bank, January 2009