10 | P a g e
National Capital Power Station - Coal
The coal-based station mainly meets power requirements of the National Capital Region
[NCR], and the northern grid. With the World Bank funding component, the capital cost of
the units is Rs. 16.69 billion. There are four 210 MW coal based units. The units have a coal-
fired boiler and a steam turbine each. The boiler design is also suitable for 100% operations
with heavy furnace oil firing. For this, three storage tanks, each of capacity 15,000KL,
enough for 10 days continuous oil firing requirements have been provided for the boilers.
Coal Source
The coal is transported from the Piparwar block of mines of the North Karanpura Coalfields
of Bihar, over a distance of about 1,200KM, by the Indian Railways bottom discharge, and
Box 'N' type of wagons. The coal requirement for the four units is 15,000 M.T. each day, 3.67
million tonnes annually. The station has its' own 14 kms. Long rail track from the Dadri
Railway Station, to the site, and a 6 km in-plant track, on electric traction.
National Capital Power Station – Gas
The gas-based station at N.C.P.S. is the country's largest gas power plant. It has two modules;
each module consists of two gas turbines of 130.19 MW, with one waste heat recovery boiler
and one steam turbine of 154.51 MW capacities. The power from this plant is allocated to
Uttar Pradesh, and also to Delhi, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh
and Rajasthan. The cost of gas based modules is Rs. 9.75 billion. Gas turbines generate
power at an efficiency of about 32% only, and to utilize the rest of this energy, a combined
cycle system is adopted. The waste heat from the gas turbine exhaust is routed through the
waste heat recovery boiler, and the steam thus generated is utilized in a conventional steam
turbine to generate additional power. By this, the overall efficiency of fuel heat utilization
reaches to about 48%.
Gas Source
The source of fuel for this plant is the reserves of South Basin fields in South Tapi and mid
Tapi delta in the Arabian Sea. The natural gas from South Basin off shore fields is
transported through a submarine pipeline to Hazira onshore terminal and then through the
1,700 km Long Hazira- Bijapur pipeline via Shahjanpur and Babrala, to the project. For the
829 MW project, the requirement is 3.00 million cubic meters per day (yearly average). It
would be worthwhile to note that within a short span of less than 7 years, both the coal and
gas based power cycle units/modules have been commissioned in a project. Both the projects
have diverse modern technologies, with the latest process controls.
HVDC
This is a technological accomplishment by NTPC; the system is the first commercial long
distance HVDC link in India, and also the largest in Asia. The basic objective of the HVDC
link is to transmit the generated power efficiently to the northern region, with significant
reduction in transmission losses. It consists of two converter stations - one located at Rihand