First unit of 2400-Mw Sterlite Energy ignited

Sterlite Energy Limited, the flagship company of Vedanta Resources, has ignited the first unit (600 Mw) of its 2,400 MW power plant at Jharsuguda. Power generation from this 600 Mw unit is set to commence from September this year and the entire power will be devoted to Orissa.The feeding of 600 Mw to the state grid is expected to help the state to tide over the power shortfall of around 500 Mw.

Meanwhile, Sterlite has also worked out a subsequent plan for phase-wise commissioning of the remaining three units, which will result in making the 2400 Mw (6x400) plant with Independent Power Producer (IPP) status fully operational by August 2011.The IPP project is being taken up at an investment of Rs 8,200 crore.Vedanta is also setting up a 9x135 Mw Captive Power Plant (CPP) at Jharsuguda and this project is almost fully operational.

“Power is the thrust area for industries and for overall infrastructure development of India.Vedanta has decided to shape India’s infrastructure by developing an Independent Power Plant”, said M Siddiqi chief executive officer and whole time director (aluminium sector) of Vedanta Resources on the occasion of successful lighting up of the first boiler.

"As a prime advocate of sustainable development, we put a premium on environment-friendly construction technology, resulting in very low consumption of water compared to wet slurry system by deploying high concentration slurry disposal system for ash and highly concentrated slurry ”, he added.