The Essar Power Hazira Limited (EPHL) facility of Essar Power, one of Essar Global Fund’s key investments in the Energy portfolio, recently won a prestigious National award from Mission Energy in the “Best water efficient plant <=500MW” category for water optimization.
Mission Energy is supported by Niti Aayog, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Power.
Under the leadership of Mr Nishith Dayal, CEO (EPHL), the facility has implemented various water conservation and reuse projects over the years, resulting in reduction of fresh water consumption.
Some steps undertaken to reduce dependence on fresh water are:
- Specific raw water intake is achieved at 2.2 M3/MW against the MOEF guidelines of 3.5 M3/MW
- The in-house developed plant specific cooling water treatment programme has resulted in maintaining higher COC (Cycles of concentration of 7) in cooling tower
- Major water saving is achieved by reusing filters and softeners
- Back wash water, salt and water recovered during softener regeneration, boiler blow down re-use in cooling tower, cooling tower blow down re-used in coal and ash handling, waste water generated from cooling tower is being used in plant process by ArcelorMittal NipponSteel (AMNS) and has resulted in major savings in fresh water requirement
- Balance effluent water is being discharged after ensuring 100% compliance_new to Gujarat Pollution Control Board guidelines
On winning the prestigious award, Mr Dayal went on to say, “As an organization committed to its ESG goals, conservation of natural resources such as fresh water is of prime importance”
Essar takes excessive care to ensure that there is a balance between business operations and environment. With an aim to further its Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) goals, Essar has been encouraging its businesses to transition to green operations and invest in technologies that reduce their carbon footprint.
Mr Ashit Desai, Head of Power Plant Chemistry and Water Treatment was invited as a speaker where he made a presentation on water optimisation practices adopted by EPHL, which was highly appreciated by the jury panel.
Essar Power is one of India’s first private sector independent power producer having a successful track record of 25+ years. It has a power generating capacity of 2070 MW across four plants in India and Canada. Essar is also foraying into renewable energy starting with a plan to set up a 90 MWp PV Solar power plant in Dhatia, Madhya Pradesh. Essar Power has also invested in the transmission business and constructed a 465-km interstate transmission system which spans across three Indian states.