The coal town of Yellandu is all set to turn into a solar power generation hub in the tribal-dominated district soon with the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) drawing up plans to formally inaugurate the 39-MW solar power plant in the town on December 23 coinciding with the SCCL's formation day.
The photovoltaic solar power plant has been constructed in Yellandu, considered the birthplace of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited , under the first phase of the company's ambitious green energy initiative aimed at meeting its energy needs in an eco-friendly and sustainable manner besides reducing its carbon footprint.
It forms part of the SCCL's ₹1,361-crore solar energy initiative envisaging construction of solar power plants at various coal mining areas of the State-owned mining giant in three phases to generate a total of 300 MW solar power by December, 2021, SCCL sources said.
The SCCL has embraced the green energy initiative by taking up solar power plants with a total capacity of 129 MW in the first phase at RG-III in Peddapalli district, the Singareni Thermal Power Plant (STPP) at Jaipur in Mancherial district, Manuguru and Yellandu in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district.
The 10 MW solar power plant at STPP and the 30 MW solar power plant at Manuguru have already been commissioned.
About 15 MW of the total 50 MW solar power plant at RG-III was synchronised with the grid last month and the plant is expected to attain its full solar output potential later this month, sources added.
Total output
With this, the SCCL's total solar power output stands at 55 MW.
A high level meeting chaired by the SCCL Chairman and Managing Director N Sridhar recently chalked out an action plan to achieve the first phase target of 129 MW by this month end, the second phase (90 MW) and the third phase (81 MW) targets by December, 2021.
Plans are afoot to synchronise around 15 MW of the total 39 MW of the solar power plant at Yellandu with the grid on the SCCL's formation day on December 23 and make the plant fully operational at its total capacity.