AGARTALA, March 30 (TIWN): Gas based NEEPCO Monachak 101 MW power plant under Sonamura Sub-Division started its test run power generation with 15 MW of power out of 65 MW from Saturday. According to the sources from Monarchak, the power generation from the plant could not reach to the 65 MW with its capacity in initial stage. However later on Saturday night a decision was taken to increase its capacity from 15 MW to 65MW. But as the amount of power generated on the first day wouldn’t meet the demand and cannot be put into use, so the capacity was not increased further. Talking to TIWN on Saturday evening, NEEPCO Project Head & General Manager S R Biswas said that at present the turbines were running in full speed and it will synchronized again on Sunday evening, as asked by the Tripura Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (TNGCL). The total capacity of the power plant at Monarchak is 101 MW,out of which 65 MW of power will generated through gas from the ONGC and the rest 36 MW of power will be generated using the waste gas. The same procedure was taken up at Palatana OTPC.It is to be mentioned here that earlier Biswas said that, the gas transparency arrangement made by the ONGC to supply gas to the Monarchak, will not meet the gas turbine system at present.

Besides, couple of days back the gas to the Monarchak plant was cut off as the ONGC has taken up the extension work of a portion of 150 meter inner pipeline.On March 11, the gas turbine of the power plant situated at Monarchak under Sonamura Sub Division synchronized its turbine successfully with the generation of 9 MW of power on its initial stage. 

The turbine was made run precisely for 25 minutes. Besides, it may be recalled here that the ONGC had already charged gas into the 10 km pipeline from Khedabari - Sonamura GCS, to its Gas Metering Terminal at NEEPCO –Monarchak.

The foundation stone of the Monarchak project had been laid by former power minister of NDA regime (current Railways Minister) Suresh Prabhu in 2002 with an estimated project cost of Rs 623 crore, though the project cost spiked up over the years. Apart from 101 MW power plant, Northeast India's biggest and the first-of-its-kind 5MW capacity solar power plant in Tripura has begun commercial production from Monarchak under Sonamura sub division. The solar power plant was set up at a cost of Rs.40 crore. The entire power from the plant is being transmitted to the Tripura power grid now.