The Ground Breaking ceremony for ‘GEDCOL SAIL Power Corporation Limited (GSPCL)’ was performed at the Mandira Reservoir site by Atanu Bhowmick, Director In-Charge, Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) with Additional Charge of Bokaro Steel Plat, on 9th January 2024.
Present on the occasion were Amresh Kumar, MD (OHPCL), Somnath Tripathy, ED (MM), Dr. B K Hota, ED (M&HS), Tarun Misra, ED (P&A), Alok Verma, ED (Mines), A K Behuria, ED (F&A), I Rajan, CGM (COCCD) and Acting ED (Works), Ashish Kumar Mohanty, Director Operation (OHPCL), D Rabha, GM (WMD), RSP and other Senior Officers of the Plant and OHPC.
It is worth mentioning here that GSPCL is a joint venture between Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) of Steel Authority of India Limited and GEDCOL (Green Energy Development Corporation of Odisha), a wholly owned subsidiary of OHPC (Odisha Hydro Power Corporation).
The agreement for the JV was earlier signed on 18th February 2018 where the Company was provisionally named as “Mandira Power Corporation Limited”. Under this joint venture, one Small Hydro Electric Power (SHEP) project of 10 MW with three turbines (each with a capacity of 3.3 MW) will be installed and operated at Mandira Dam Reservoir, the captive water body of RSP at a cost of Rs.110 Crores.
This power plant shall generate power by harnessing the energy potential of water released from Mandira Dam for use downstream by RSP. The power plant will be installed at a comparatively low cost and in a very short period of time since the dam is already in existence.
The entire power generated at the proposed project shall be consumed by RSP and can be used in any other unit of SAIL through open-access mechanism. Apart from providing cheap access to power the project will ensure that the power so generated shall be treated as Renewable power and shall help RSP to offset its RPO or Renewable Power Obligation.
