AGARTALA, February 14 (TIWN): North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) is expected to commission a total of 5 MW of power from Monarchak SOLAR power plant, by the next couple of days, said NEEPCO Project Head S R Biswas on Friday talking to TIWN. “At present the plant is generating at least 3.5 MW of solar power” Biswas told to TIWN. He further added that the 101MW gas turbine is also all set to generate power by February.Talking to TIWN on Friday night NEEPCO Project Head S R Biswas said that by the month of February the Monarchak 101MW gas based thermal power project is expected to start its power generation. He said that the turbine has already started taking the gas charged by the ONGC recently, with the compressor kicked of its operation. Besides, the solar power plant is all set to generate a total of 5 MW of solar power by the next couple of days after completing some technicalities, said Biswas. Adding to that he said that at present the solar plant is generating 3.5 MW of power.The solar power plant was commissioned at a cost of Rs.40 crore. The entire power is being transmitted to the Tripura power grid.As many as 23,616 solar modules are being erected to tap the sunlight in the plant, which will be able to generate power round the year,” Biswas added. Besides this, NEEPCO has also prepared a detailed project report for another 5 MW solar plant at Hujai-Lanka of Assam and 2 MW capacity windmill in northern Arunachal Pradesh.

NEEPCO, under Clean Development Mechanism (CDM),is embarking a plan to generate at least 1500 MW power from non-conventional sources of energy, especially by tapping solar power and wind in the region by 2020.

It is mentionable here that the ONGC has started supplying gas to NEEPCO's 101-MW capacity power plant in Monarchak, 70 km south of Tripura capital Agartala and just eight km from the Bangladesh border.

The foundation stone of the Monarchak power project was laid during the previous National Democratic Alliance government in March 2002 and the Tripura government allotted the required land to NEEPCO in 2003.

The Rokhia and Baramura gas-based power plants in Tripura are at present in the open cycle system. Both the power plants would be converted into the combined cycle mode to generate additional power without using extra fuel, NEEPCO official said.