By Our Staff Reporter
Rishikesh, 19 Feb: Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the 50 MW Kasaragod Solar Power Project to the Nation through Video Conference today – the first Solar Power Project implemented by THDC India Limited (THDCIL).
Governor of Kerala Arif Mohammad Khan; Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan; Union Minister of State (IC) (Power and New Renewable Energy) & Minister of State (Skilled Development & Entrepreneurship), RK Singh; Union Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs(I/C), Civil Aviation(I/C), Hardeep Singh Puri; Kerala Minister for Electricity MM Mani, MP Shashi Tharoor and Alok Kumar, Secretary (Power), attended the ceremony via video conference. MLA, Manjeshwaram, MC Kamaruddin attended the ceremony from the project site.
DV Singh; CMD, THDCIL, J Behera, Director (Finance), RK Vishnoi, Director (Technical), Augustin Thomas, CEO, RPCKL, and other dignitaries attended the dedication ceremony from the project location at Kasaragod, Kerala.
While most of the infrastructure projects the world over got severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, this project was commissioned a month before schedule, despite all hurdles.
With the development of its first 50 MW Solar Photo Voltaic PV power project in Kasaragod Solar Park, THDC is committed to contributing to the government’s solar power agenda in Kerala which has a total capacity of 105 MW. The project has been developed on 250 acres of land provided by Kerala State Electricity Board, which is spread across Paivalike, Meenja and Chippar villages of District Kasaragod, and built with central government’s investment of around Rs 280 cr. The capacity utilisation factor of the project was upgraded to 23 percent from initial 19 percent by innovative design, where more PV panels were installed with higher watt capacity, thus increasing the DC capacity by 30 percent. The Project has 165149 multi crystalline solar PV modules that are powering the generation of 100.56 Million units of clean energy at a tariff of Rs 3.10 per KwH (unit) for which a Power Sale Agreement has already been signed between THDC and KSEB.