Essar commenced 600 MW power project

Essar Power, a subsidiary of Essar Energy plc., has announced that 600 megawatt (MW) unit one of its 1,200 MW Mahan I power project has been synchronised with the transmission grid and has commenced generating power.
Mahan I is Essar Power’s 8th operational power plant, taking Essar  to 3,910 MW of generation capacity, compared with 1,220 MW at the time of the company’s IPO in May 2010. This 600 MW capacity is the largest single unit commissioned in Madhya Pradesh.
The Mahan I plant begins operation using a combination of imported coal and coal sourced from Coal India’s e-auction process, while an application has also been made for an interim tapering coal linkage allocation from Coal India. Coal from these sources will be required until Essar Power’s nearby Mahan coal block is operational. Essar Power received stage 1 forest clearance for the Mahan coal block at the end of October 2012.
Naresh Nayyar, Chief Executive Officer, Essar Energy, said: “The commissioning of the 1st unit at Mahan is another major milestone for Essar Energy, and means we have now more than tripled our generation capacity over the past couple of years. Our focus now is on the development of the Mahan coal block which will provide a low-cost fuel source for the power plant, placing it among the lowest-cost power generators in India.”