NTPC Limited has declared commercial operations of the first part capacity of 162.27 MW of the 230 MW Ettayapuram solar photovoltaic (PV) project in Thoothukudi District, Tamil Nadu.
The remaining 67.73 MW of Ettayapuram project is expected to be declared operational within the next week. The engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for the project is Larsen and Toubro . The Ettayapuram plant is spread over about 900 acres of land and uses about 1.05 million solar panels, all of Indian origin. Drone-based digital technologies were extensively used during plant construction, for surveillance and monitoring. The power is being evacuated from the solar plant to Power Grid Corporation of India Limited’s Tuticorin-II, gas insulated switchgear (GIS) substation through a 19 km long, 230kV transmission line. Power from the Ettayapuram solar plant is supplied to Telangana discoms. With this, the standalone installed and commercial capacity of NTPC has become 57,801.27 MW, while installed and commercial capacity of NTPC group has become 70,416.27 MW.