Union Minister Seeks Power Plant Boost For NALCO’s Brownfield Project In Odisha’s Angul

Bhubaneswar: Union Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel, Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday proposed to the Centre to commission a feeder Captive Power Plant (CPP) for enhancing the capacity of a brownfield project by NALCO’s aluminium smelter plant in Angul district.

In a letter to the Union Coal and Mines Minister, Prahlad Joshi, Pradhan said NALCO is undertaking a brownfield expansion project for its aluminium smelter plant to increase its capacity from 0.46 MTPA to 1 MTPA. The proposed project is estimated to cost Rs 22,000 crore, he mentioned.

Stating that the land acquisition for the proposed project is underway, Pradhan said NALCO’s bauxite production capacity will increase from 7.3 MTPA to 10.5 MTPA after the operationalization of Pottangi mines, which has 3.1 MPTA of alumina. This has the potential to be produced into 1.5 MTPA of aluminium, he wrote.

Noting that aluminium smelting is a highly power-intensive process and the feasibility of the brownfield expansion project is heavily dependent on a steady supply of affordable coal to the 1400 MW feeder CPP for the uninterrupted bulk generation of power, Dharmendra proposed to the coal minister to commission the feeder CPP for the brownfield project in Angul. This will benefit from logistical efficiencies due to its strategic location in proximity to the smelter unit and coal blocks, he added.