AGARTALA, February 16 (TIWN): North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) kick started its commercial generation of 5 MW power from Monarchak SOLAR power plant, under Sonamura sub division from Sunday onwards, Project Head SR Biswas told to TIWN today. He further added that the authority is also trying to commission its 101 MW of power from gas based thermal power plant as early as possible. Talking to TIWN today NEEPCO Project Head S R Biswas said that the Monarchak SOLAR power plant has started its commercial generation of 5 MW power from Sunday onwards. The entire power is being transmitted to the Tripura power grid now. The solar power plant was commissioned at a cost of Rs.40 crore. Adding to that Biswas mentioned that as of now no power tariff has been fixed, and it will take another period of time. The Shillong based regulatory authority is expected to deal with fixing power tariff, said Biswas.Earlier the solar power plant at Monarchak under Sonamura sub division has generated its power up to 3.5 MW.

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. 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 also mentionable here that the Tripura Monarchak Solar power plant is one of the biggest plant in the entire North Eastern region.

Sideling another issue, Monarchak Project Head S R Biswas said that the concerned authority is trying their best to commission 101 MW of power from its gas based thermal power plant as early as possible. “As of now no unwanted particles has been found in the gas that has been supplying by the ONGC”, Biswas told to TIWN today. He further mentioned that at least 0.5 million metric tons of gas is required for the Monarchak gas based thermal power plant daily. It may be recalled here that the ONGC has recently 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.