Land acquisition problems have forced the country?s largest power producer, NTPC, to rethink its expansion strategy. The company now plans to use spare land at all its existing plants to put up additional generation units, instead of going in for fresh land acquisition. A capacity of more than 10,000 mw is planned to be added under the new initiative over the next few years.
?We are in the process of identifying tracts of land at all our existing plants that could be used for expanding capacity beyond the levels already proposed under our expansion plan,? a senior NTPC executive told FE on condition of anonymity.
?Effort is also on to make all our projects compact by re-engineering and re-planning townships, and using existing ash dyke areas for putting up additional power units,? the official said.
The Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011, introduced in Parliament recently, has proposed a substantial hike in compensation for project affected people, linking land prices to four times the market value. NTPC officials say the new legislation would shoot up the land acquisition cost from the present about 10% to over 20% of the project cost, thereby substantially suppressing the company?s margins.
The new land optimisation strategy is likely to first cover coal-based projects where brownfield expansion is already going on, like Sipat, Vindhyachal, Unchahar, Ramagundam, Talcher Kaniha and Tanda, and also a few gas-based projects. These projects have an estimated potential to generate an additional 10,000 mw beyond the already announced expansion. If these additional units are commissioned, NTPC could save between R8,000 and R9,000 crore on acquiring land (if these units were set up under the greenfield route) in addition to savings on rehabilitation and resettlement.
In Sipat, feasibility studies have already started to put up a 660 mw unit at the current location in addition to three 660 mw supercritical units being put up under the agreed expansion programme. In Vindhyachal, where NTPC has 5,000 acre land, effort is on to squeeze in another 500 mw unit under Phase VI in addition to 1,000 mw expansion already being carried out. Similar effort is also being explored at Dadri for gas capacity.
The general rule for land requirement of power projects is 1 acre of land for 1 mw of power. In few NTPC stations, the company has surplus land going by this formula. In others, where expansion is going on, other measures like reducing the size of township and better engineering design is being undertaken to optimise land use.
?The company is also exploring the option to acquire land in the vicinity of its projects where the process could be easier due to less habitation,? said power ministry officials aware of the development.
NTPC plans to add 4,320 mw during 2011-12 to its existing capacity of 34,854 mw (including JVs) with 15 coal-based and 7 gas-based stations, located across the country. It currently has 15 power projects under construction with total 14,088 Mw capacity and projects worth 18,471 mw are in the bidding process. Besides, it has approved feasibility reports for 14,666 mw. The company is also preparing feasibility reports for an additional basket of 16,272 mw capacity.
The company has set an ambitious target of becoming a 1,28,000 mw capacity firm by 2032. It is targeting 75,000 mw capacity by 2017, which will largely come from brownfield expansion.