Commercial operation of the 42.5 megawatt capacity of the 100 MW floating solar PV project coming up at NTPC Ramagundam has commenced at 00.00 hours on Thursday taking the total capacity operating commercially so far to 80 MW.
The entire 100 MW capacity established in the reservoir waters of the public sector energy company would become commercially operational over the next few months. Of the capacity operational now, 17.5 MW went commercial on October 28 last year and another 20 MW on December 22 last year.
Regional Executive Director of NTPC (South) Naresh Anand complimented Team Ramagundam and reiterated NTPC’s commitment to renewable energy. As part of achieving NTPC’s target of 60 GW of RE capacity by 2032, Southern Region was making concerted efforts. Besides Ramagundam, NTPC-Simhadri (Andhra Pradesh) had already installed 25 MW floating solar power panels, while work was in full swing at NTPC-Kayamkulam (Kerala) on installation of 92 MW floating solar power generation unit, he stated.
Terming it as the largest in the segment in the country, the 100-MW floating solar project at Ramagundam spreads over 450 acres of its reservoir on the premises of the existing thermal power project and the under construction Telangana project with a financial implication of ₹423 crore. The entire project is divided into 40 blocks, each having 2.5 MW.
Speaking at Ramagundam, Chief General Manager of NTPC (Ramagundam and Telangana) Sunil Kumar said on Friday that each block consists of one floating platform and an array of about 11,200 solar modules. The floating platform consists of one inverter, transformer and a high-tension breaker. The solar modules are placed on floaters manufactured with HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) material.
Further, he explained that the entire floating system was being anchored through special HMPE (High Modulus Polyethylene) rope to the dead weights placed on the balancing reservoir bed. Power generated at the facility was is being evacuated up to the existing switch yard through 33KV underground cables.
He stated that the project was unique in a sense that all the electrical equipment, including inverter, transformer, HT panel and SCADA were also on floating ferro cement platforms. The anchoring of the system was through dead weight concrete blocks at the bottom.
