DVC to invest ₹6,500 crore in Bengal in 6 yrs for solar push

Kolkata: Public sector power utility Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) will invest Rs 6,500 crore in Bengal for solar power generation in the next six years. This will be a part of DVC’s plan to invest Rs 20,000 crore in solar power by 2030, the rest being in Jharkhand.
Speaking to the media here, DVC chairman S Suresh Kumar said DVC has installed solar capacity of 14 MW.By 2030, the power utility is planning to take it up to 4,000 MW. Of this, Jharkhand will get 2/3rd capacity while Bengal the rest one-third.
Kumar pointed out that around 348 MW is now under construction. “Most of our ongoing projects in solar are floating panel solar units. The ground solar unit capacity would be 58 MW and the rest floating,” he added.
DVC is creating a floating solar plant in Tilaya and in Panchet. Panchet is on the Bengal-Jharkhand border. Out of 4,000 MW solar capacity, 50% (2,000 MW) would be floating panel. The debt equity ratio of the investment would be 80:20. Incidentally, DVC has a JV with NTPC as well for 755 MW of solar power.
“As far as the JV is concerned, 310 MW is under construction and the rest 38MW is our own investment,” Kumar said. NTPC holds 51% in the JV.
The power utility is also planning to come out with a tender for solar storage solutions through battery. NTPC has already come out with a tender for storage solutions in Dadri for thermal to balance peak and off-peak demand.
The DVC chairman also pointed out that it was planning to increase captive production of coal to improve the bottom line. Last year, captive coal production was 1.1 million tonnes, which will go up to 4 million tonnes this year. DVC’s total yearly requirement of coal is around 29-30 million tonnes.
DVC has one captive mine in Jharkhand. According to Kumar, captive coal is cheaper even when one considers the logistics cost. The price of captive coal per month is Rs 2,200 while equal grade coal of Coal India would cost Rs 2,800.