Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) are jointly setting up a highly efficient 800 megawatts advance ultra supercritical (AUSC) thermal power plant.

The AUSC technology is indigenously developed with a joint research & development effort from Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, BHEL and NTPC.

“The development of indigenous technology for AUSC thermal power plants with much higher efficiency has been completed. A joint venture between NTPC and BHEL will set up a full scale 800 MW commercial plant using AUSC technology. The government will provide the required fiscal support. Moving forward, development of indigenous capacity for the production of high-grade steel and other advanced metallurgy materials for these plants will result in strong spin-off benefits for the economy,” Sitharaman announced in the Budget 2024.

India’s current arsenal of thermal power plants operate at an average of 32 per cent efficiency.

The AUSC technology can ramp this up to 46 per cent efficiency. In the past few decades, Indian coal fleet has gone through rapid changes in terms of technology, with the first supercritical plant launched in 2010 at Mundra Adani Plant.

Following this, a total of 72 supercritical and 20 ultra supercritical units have come into operation.