Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, and NTPC have decided in-principle to form a joint venture to set up a Greenfield coal-fired power plant. “The discussions are in progress. We are yet to work out nitty-gritty of our understanding though both the companies are in agreement that it is mutually beneficial,” RINL Chairman-cum-Managing Director P. Madhusudan told The Hindu. RINL is keen on establishing below 1,000 MW plant with supercritical technology on its premises at Ukkunagaram by allotting around 400 acres to meet its future power requirement. RINL, a Navratna company, owns 25,000 acres. NTPC, which has 2,000 MW Simhadri Super Thermal Power Plant at Parawada, near VSP and is establishing 4,000 MW plant with an investment of Rs.24,000 crore at Pudimadaka, about 60 km from here is scouting for suitable land to expand the capacity of Simhadri. RINL presently has the capacity to generate 354 MW and with the expansion and upgradation of existing units, the captive power generation will reach to 523 MW. RINL requires 486 MVA of power for expansion of 6.3 million tonne capacity. Mr. Madhusudan said RINL adopted state-of-the-art technologies since inception in tapping the waste energy thereby becoming a trend-setter in captive power generation in the steel industry. The company currently has three turbo generators each with 60 MW capacity and two turbo generators of 67.5 MW each taking the total captive power generation capacity of 315 MW. Out of this, the by-product gases at coke ovens and blast furnaces are also utilised in captive power plant to generate electricity of 115-120 MW. As part of waste energy recovery in the expansion and upgradation of existing units, RINL is installing another 120 MW gas-based captive power plant utilising 100 per cent blast furnace gas for power generation at a total cost of Rs.677 crore. The plant was synchronised with the State Grid last week. “This is a major milestone in our efforts towards self-sufficiency in captive power generation,” Mr. Madhusudan said. RINL is keen on establishing below 1,000 MW plant with supercritical technology on its premises at Ukkunagaram by allotting around 400 acres to meet its future power requirement