“The turbine of the Darlipalli plant is ready. The boiler is expected to be completely fit for operations by February 10. We have already invested Rs 8,500 crore on the project whose total cost is pegged at around Rs 12,000 crore”, M P Sinha, regional executive director (East-II) said at a press conference here.

Odisha will get 50 per cent power from this NTPC project. The Maharatna producer has already inked power purchase agreements (PPA) with states for the Darlipalli plant. Coal to feed the power plant, will be sourced from NTPC's Dulanga coal mine. Any deficiency in coal requirement is to be met from Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL). The plant is expected to consume eight million tonnes of coal annually.

Asked about the power project at Gajamara, Sinha said, “The MoU (memorandum of understanding) was signed with Nalco (National Aluminium Company) last year. But the project could not make progress. The MoU with Nalco has not been scrapped yet.”

Both Nalco and NTPC had signed a pact to set up 2,400 Mw coal-fired power station at Gajamara in Dhenkanal district at an investment of Rs 14,000 crore. As per the terms of the agreement, Nalco was supposed to buy 80 per cent of the power generated from this station to feed its aluminium smelter at Angul.

On the row over tariff of Talcher Thermal Power Station (TTPS) with the Odisha government, he said, “The feasibility report for the power project was prepared in 2010 and then, the levelised tariff was Rs 2.78 per unit. The cost has gone up due to several factors and there is no hidden expenditure.”

NTPC had executed with the state government in 2010 when Odisha confronted deficit in power availability, especially peak power. As per the terms of the PPA, the state government was to draw 50 per cent of the 1,320 Mw power to be generated by the station in its next phase ramp up.

But Odisha is now looking at 1500-1600 Mw excess thermal power from 2019-20, counting its 800 Mw allocation from NTPC's upcoming 1600 Mw fresh capacity at Darlipalli (near Sundargarh) and 660 Mw to be generated by its own utility- Odisha Power Generation Corporation Ltd (OPGC). In view of this glut, the state government was not keen to commit to more power procurement.