OREANDA-NEWS. Tata Power, one of India's largest integrated power companies, has been honoured with the Silver Shield Award by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) for its Mundra Ultra Mega Power Plant (UMPP) under the 'comprehensive award scheme'. This award has been given for the early completion of Mundra UMPP's Unit 5 (800MW). The award ceremony was graced by the presence of Jyotiraditya M Scindia, Union Minister of State for Power, who honoured Tata Power with this prestigious award in New Delhi. The award was received by Rajit Desai, chief, projects, on behalf of Tata Power.

Tata Power, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Coastal Gujarat Power (CGPL), supplies power to five states, namely Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Maharashtra. The project was completed in only one year from the date of commissioning of the first 800MW unit in March 2012. The average gap between the synchronisation of two units has been 3.5 months, which is less than the baseline schedule of 4 months and is also less than the 5 months provided in the original PPA.

The CEA is an organisation constituted by the Ministry of Power in 2004-2005 to recognise meritorious performances in the power sector. The objective of the comprehensive award scheme is to develop the spirit of competitiveness amongst the various power utilities in the power sector.

Speaking on the recognition, Anil Sardana, managing director, Tata Power, said, “We are honoured to be felicitated with this prestigious award by the Ministry of Power for the completion of the Mundra UMPP ahead of schedule. Tata Power Mundra UMPP is India's first 4,000MW thermal power plant using supercritical technology and meets 2-3 percent of the country's total power needs. The project reinforces Tata Power's commitment to bridge the energy demand-supply gap in India and reinforces our group's commitment of 'a promise is a promise'. This plant is a state-of-the-art generation station which is built with advanced equipment sourced from Korea and Japan. The project is a fine example of advanced technology combined with innovations by the project team.”

The 4,000MW Mundra UMPP heralds the entry of the 800MW supercritical boiler technology in India, which is environment-friendly and energy-efficient. This technology and the choice of unit sizes will help save fuel for the project and cut down greenhouse gas emissions as compared to regular coal-fired power stations. In addition, the choice of imported coal is expected to significantly lower sulphur emissions.

In addition, Tata Power has adopted a multi-dimensional community development programme as part of its community engagement initiatives. The major thematic areas of interventions include health, education, income generation and livelihood restoration, infrastructure development, energy conservation, and natural resource management.